The Chessels

The Chessels
The corner of Chessel Street and West Street is home to The White Horse pub (shown here in 1999)
The Chessels  The Chessels shown within Bristol
OS grid reference	ST577712
Civil parish	Bedminster
Unitary authority	Bristol
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRISTOL
Postcode district	BS3
Dialling code	0117
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	Bristol South
List of places: UK • England • Bristol

The Chessels is an area of Bedminster, Bristol that runs from the mid section of Luckwell Rd to the White Horse pub on West Street. Chessel Street is the main road. It has a number of streets on either side that are all named after gemstones, including Ruby Street, Pearl Street, Beryl Road, Jasper Street and Garnet Street. At the West Street end Chessel Street also turns off into British Road, and at the Luckwell Hill end there is a moderately sized Anglican church, St Aldhelms (built 1907), which is part of the Bedminster Team Ministry.

Until as recently as 1980 there was a shop on every corner of the entire street - over 10 shops. These included a bakery, general store, sweet shop and newsagent, a cooker and electrical shop, and a dry cleaner. There was also a strange little shop that used to sell bits of almost antique bric-a-brac. The post office counter was closed as part of Post Office Ltd's post office closure plan and the Post Office, the last remaining shop on the road, was transformed into the Bristol Green Store in November 2008. Initially a project run by a small group of local producers, it has now evolved into the Natural Building Store, and the Bristol Green Store project has a section within the shop for local products. The shop also runs a community project called "The Space", for local use of the shop facilities and website, including a food co-op and Freeshare goods recycling.