Was Chester the intended capital of Roman Britain?

There has been much speculation about whether Roman Chester was once the capital of Britannia. This was the subject of a BBC Two Timewatch programme "Britain’s Lost Colosseum" broadcast on 20 May 2005 and, more recently, Professor Alice Roberts "Britain's Most Historic Towns" excellent programme about Roman Chester broadcast on 7 April 2018.

Inspired by an Ordnance Survey blog post about Winchester, "A Capital Idea" I wondered what the map of Chester would be like if it was and had remained as the nation’s capital and grown over the years as London has.

I therefore re-imagined Chester as the capital of Britain using exactly the same technique as Ordnance Survey Cartographer Danny Hyam did for his Winchester map. 

Using QGIS and Ordnance Survey Open Data, I took the London Urban Area Boundary from OS and overlaid it on a map of the Chester area, positioning Chester Cross where Charing Cross is located in London, clipping the edges to the coastline. These two locations are regarded as the centres of both cities and the point where historically distances are measured to.

Taking OS’s examples on the same scale where London landmarks would be:

• Buckingham Palace would have been in the middle of Curzon Park
• Wembley Stadium would be at the UPM recycling plant on Deeside
• Wimbledon Tennis Ground would be located just south of Higher Kinnerton

Taking the reverse situation Chester landmarks applied to London:

• Chester Cathedral would be where the National Gallery is on the north side of Trafalgar Square
• Chester FC Stadium would be in the middle of Hyde Park
• Chester Racecourse would be at St James’s Palace
• Chester Zoo would move near Caledonian Road tube station

Thank you to Ordnance Survey for their help in producing the map.