Guildhall
GUILDHALL, WATERGATE STREET AND ROW
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1376467
- Date first listed:
- 28-Jul-1955
- List Entry Name:
- Guildhall
- Statutory Address:
- GUILDHALL, WATERGATE STREET AND ROW
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2006-03-01
- Reference:
- IOE01/13900/15
- Rights:
- © Mr Andy Hibbert. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1376467
- Date first listed:
- 28-Jul-1955
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 06-Aug-1998
- List Entry Name:
- Guildhall
- Statutory Address 1:
- GUILDHALL, WATERGATE STREET AND ROW
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- GUILDHALL, WATERGATE STREET AND ROW
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Cheshire West and Chester (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SJ 40319 66246
Details
CHESTER CITY (IM)
SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/419 (North side) 28/07/55 Guildhall (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET Guildhall)
GV II
Formerly known as: Holy Trinity Church WATERGATE STREET. Church, now Guildhall. 1865-9, rebuilt on the site of one of the City's 9 medieval parish churches to the design of James Harrison but completed after his death by Kelly and Edwards of Chester, in Geometrical Decorated style; converted to Guildhall early 1960s. Red sandstone; grey slate roofs. PLAN: continuous nave and chancel, west porch, detached south spire and porch, south priest's vestry. EXTERIOR: west window of 7 lights above gabled porch has Geometrical tracery; south aisle has traceried windows of 3 lights, and to east of 4 lights; 7-light east window has tracery similar to west window; the north aisle windows, blocked C20 to the nave, of 3 lights with tracery to the chancel and of 4 lights to east end; the clerestory has 2-light windows to the nave, paired lancets to the chancel. The spire has a 3-stage tower with oak-boarded double doors to east having blank tracery panels above with relief sculpture of Christ enthroned, under a gable moulding; a traceried 2-light window in the south wall. The second stage has a lancet and a clock face to the east and south; the third stage has traceried 2-light bell-openings; corner buttresses; pierced parapet; recessed octagonal stone spire with 3 lucarnes to each cardinal face, the lowest ones containing 2-light traceried windows. INTERIOR: stripped of most fittings and with inserted timber partitions east of the porch in the south aisle and in the chancel and its north aisle, has arcades of 6 nave bays and 2 chancel bays, with octagonal piers and corbelled clerestory shafts supporting arch-braced trusses; the chancel is differentiated only by a heavier truss on paired shafts. The glass in the east window depicts God, major Old Testament figures and saints, some associated with the diocese to Lichfield and Chester; the western window in the south aisle depicts Christ, Isiah and David; the former chancel screen is behind the partition of the east chamber; the reredos is concealed behind lightweight cladding beneath the east window. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Hubbard E: Cheshire:
Harmondsworth: 1971-; Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-: 103).
Listing NGR: SJ4031966246
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 470468
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Hubbard, E, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, (1971)
Harris, B, Bartholomew City Guides in Chester, (1979), 103
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 22-Jun-2026 at 01:26:42.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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