Number 11 Street Numbers 15 and 15A Row the Old Crypt

Details

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/384 (South side) 18/07/55 No.11 Street and Nos.15 & 15A Row (The Old Crypt) (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET No 11 Street & No 15 Row)

GV I

Undercroft and town house now undercroft restaurant, Row shop and office above vacant. c1300 refronted and rebuilt from Row level upward c1744. Sandstone and brick; grey slate roof. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys including street and Row levels; 2 medieval structural bays. Later C19 shopfront to street has 2 intermediate chamfered piers of painted stone to street; 4 raised shields, those over end piers inscribed "Quellyn Roberts & Co. Wine and Spirit Merchant" and the 2 between inscribed "The Old Crypt 1180"; boarded double doors right with wrought-iron grilles and strap hinges; shaped shop windows. Front to Row has 2 Tuscan columns and timber rail on vase balusters; end piers have antae; frieze and cornice with a triglyph over each column and half triglyph over each anta. C20 shopfront and late C20 entrance, right, to No.15A flanked by reeded pilasters carrying frieze and modillion cornice, early C19. Brown brick upper storeys in irregular Flemish bond have rusticated quoins, band at 4th storey floor and moulded cornice of painted stone; plain stone sills and rusticated wedge lintels to 3 near-flush sashes in each storey, with glazing bars; stone-coped parapet. 2-storey brick extension with ridge parallel with street, C17 at its west end but largely rebuilt and probably extended C19. INTERIOR: the fine undercroft, c1300, has walls to sides, rear and parts of front of coursed rubble sandstone with colonnettes carrying the chamfered ribs of a 4-bay quadripartite sandstone vault of 2 naves with 3 octagonal columns; the colonnettes have roll-moulds on bell-shaped lower mouldings; the columns have roll-moulds; a small rectangular recess at shoulder height in the left wall of the second and fourth bays; the right wall has an inserted pointed-arched opening with continuous chamfer, leading to the undercroft of No.13 (qv); the rear wall has a similar archway, probably original, leading to the eastern of 2 stone-walled rear chambers, each with a brick barrel vault, probably C18. The main undercroft is 13.5 x 6.2 m with walls 1.2m thick; its front wall is 2.4m behind later encroachment of the shopfront

onto the street. No.15 Row occupies only the north-eastern quarter of the Row-level storey, with modern internal cladding concealing walls and ceiling; No.15A occupies the west and rear of the property at Row level and the whole of the third and fourth storeys, restored and converted for office use, with rearrangement of some internal features, early 1980s. The altered mid C18 open-well open-string stair to third storey has 3 turned balusters of alternating form to each step, carrying a swept handrail; the stairwell has a panelled dado, and plaster panels above a stringcourse at upper level; a plaster ceiling panel, partly boxed in. Principal doors have 6 fielded panels; the architraves where facing the stairwell are shouldered. A Classical doorcase opposite the stairhead and repositioned has pilasters with Ionic fluting, a fanlight without glazing bars and a frieze with triglyphs. Front room has dado rail with alternating broad and narrow tall panels above, modillion cornice, repaired ceiling rose and brought-in marble fireplace. West rear room in main building has stone fire surround of early C18 character; there are cast-iron fireplaces, most C19. Dogleg stair to fourth storey has turned balusters; rear stair of stone from undercroft to Row level. Inglenook with moulded oak bressumer against west gable of rear wing at Row level, which suggests that the rear wing may have been built as a separate dwelling in the C17; c.f. The Lyon House, No.23 Row (qv). (Chester Rows Research Project: Brown AN & Grenville JC & Turner RC: Watergate Street: Chester: 1988-: 6,11,12,15,23,28; Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-).



Listing NGR: SJ4047766256

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

470420

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Harris, B, Bartholomew City Guides in Chester, (1979)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.