Broadway Malyan director Danny Crump, who led the project from the practice’s centre of urbanism in Manchester, said the scheme was part of growing drive in many towns and cities to join up generations of improvised development, with the practice currently working on similar projects at New Street, Moor St and Snow Hill Stations in Birmingham.
He said: “When stations were originally built they were often the focal point of a town or city but over time the links that connected them have been severed by the development of additional infrastructure.
“With public transport now at the heart of many long-term urban strategies, we are seeing a growing drive to re-establish these connections with the objective of readjusting the balance of pedestrians and cyclists over cars and improving the overall user experience.
“Chester is currently experiencing a significant investment boom aimed at attracting more people into the heart of the city and the Chester Station Gateway project is an important part of the approach of making public transport users a real priority.
“This project helps delineate a new route between the station and the city centre by opening up the Grand Union Canal, bringing a new urban purpose to the Grade II listed Shot Tower and providing a coherent vision between the station and the Waitrose development.”