Hoole

Hoole is a suburb in the east of Chester, in Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire, England. The area is contiguous with Newton to the north and Vicars Cross to the south. The A41 road marks the suburb's eastern boundary, with the separate Hoole Village approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) away.

The settlement was first mentioned in the Register of the Abbey of Saint Werburgh in 1119. The name derives from the Old English word hol and is believed to mean "at the hollow" (or hole), possibly referring to the "hollow way" formed by a Roman roadway.

On 17 July 2009 sixteen flats on Hoole Lane were destroyed following an explosion on the first floor. More than thirty firefighters tackled the resulting fire at the two-storey building in Wharton Court.

Hoole is a residential area consisting of mainly Victorian terraced houses and 1930s semi-detached houses. Hoole Road is a designated conservation area. Due to the proximity of the area to Chester city centre, Chester railway station and the M53 motorway, the area is home to many hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfast establishments.

The main shopping streets are Faulkner Street and Charles Street, Hoole has a Post Office branch with cash machine facilities. Open spaces in Hoole include Alexandra Park which provides tennis courts, bowling greens and a children's play area and the Coronation Playing Fields. A large area of allotments is accessible from both Canadian Avenue and Hoole Lane.

The annual Hoole Christmas Lights switch-on by a local celebrity attracts crowds of thousands to Faulkner Street. The event celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019.

There is one tier of local government covering Hoole, at unitary authority level: Cheshire West and Chester Council.

Hoole was historically a township. The township was mostly in the ancient parish of Plemstall in the Broxton Hundred of Cheshire. A small part of the township in its southernmost corner comprised part of the parish of St John the Baptist, Chester, but lay outside the city's municipal boundaries. From the 17th century onwards, parishes were gradually given various civil functions under the poor laws, in addition to their original ecclesiastical functions. In some cases, including Hoole, the civil functions were exercised by the township rather than the wider parishes. In 1866, the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so Hoole became a civil parish.