17 and 19 Bridge Street and 21 and 23 Bridge Street Row East

Details

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement 18 September 2024 to update name, address and details, add Source and reformat the text to current standards

SJ4066SE
595-1/4/61

CHESTER CITY (IM)
BRIDGE STREET
No 17 and 19

AND

BRIDGE STREET ROW EAST
Nos 21 and 23

(Formerly listed as BRIDGE STREET AND ROW (East side) Nos.17 & 19 Street and Nos.21 & 23 Row, previously listed as BRIDGE STREET No 19 Street & Nos 21 & 23 Row)

28/07/55

GV
II

Number 17 and 19 Bridge Street and 21 and 23 Bridge Street Row East comprise an undercroft, of probable medieval origin, below a Row shop and former townhouse of the late-C18. The building was altered in the later C20, but a photograph from 1949 shows the façade with heavy cornices and brackets above the windows and a substantial pediment to the eaves. In the early C20 there were two shop units in the undercroft, which were occupied by a provision dealer and butcher in 1902. At the same time, number 23 Bridge Street Row was the premises for a stationers, art teacher and the secretary of the Ladies Country Club.

In 2021, the undercroft and Row shops formed single units but were both occupied by the same travel agency business. The use of the upper floors is not known. The building is constructed of rendered brick with a slate roof at right angles to the street.

EXTERIOR: the building is of four storeys including an undercroft and Row.
The Row has Doric end-piers and a cast-iron railing along the front opening, returning along both stallboard sides, with circlets between paired upper rails. A stallboard, measuring 1.72m from front to back, has been altered and has a granolithic covering, the Row walkway is also granolithic. The shopfront is in an early-C20 manner with a recessed small-paned central door under an ornamented four-centred ‘Tudor’ arch and a fascia. To either side is a bolection-moulded panelled stallriser, timber pilasters and a three-pane window with spiral-moulded arrises. The Row has a plaster ceiling. The rendered bressumer above the Row-front sags slightly as if it is of timber.

The upper storeys are rendered. The third storey has a sill band immediately above a Row-front cornice and two recessed six-over-six pane sash windows. The fourth storey has a sill band and two recessed three-over-six pane sashes below a coped shallow front gable. There is probably a lateral south chimney which is not clearly visible.

INTERIOR: the front undercroft is wholly lined but a rear undercroft (now a cellar) behind it is reached from the Row shop and has sandstone sidewalls which are probably medieval. The Row shop is lined. The upper storeys have not been inspected but are stated to have a C19 stair against the south wall and a mid- to late-Victorian rear attic.

Listing NGR: SJ4056066237

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

470054

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Brown, A, The Rows of Chester: The Chester Rows Research Project in English Heritage Archaeological Report, (1999), p 157

Websites
Information about the appearance of the building found on an image of 1949, accessed October 2023 from https://www.francisfrith.com/chester/chester-bridge-street-1949_c82061

Other
Harris R, Chester Rows Research Project Archive: Bridge Street East (1989-)
Cheshire Historic Environment Record SMR number: 8460
Cheshire Historic Environment Record. HER number 10578/1 and 10578/1
Kelly's Directory of Cheshire (1902), p215

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