Standing here since 1664
The Bear & Billet has stood at the bottom of Lower Bridge Street since 1664, built as the town house of the Earls of Shrewsbury. They held the Bridgegate at the end of the road, and the bear on the sign comes straight off their crest — tethered to a billet, a wooden stake.
It is Grade I listed and counted among the last great timber-framed town houses in England. The double doors and the hoist bracket on the gable are still there from the years the building doubled as a grain store.
Inside there are three floors of it. Cask ale at the bar and a lit shelf of gin behind it, two fireplaces for the winter, eight screens when the football is on, and a riverside garden for the days Chester gets the weather. Quiz on Thursdays and Sundays, live music on Friday evenings, dogs welcome throughout.
