Description

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
595-1/4/58

CHESTER CITY (IM)
BRIDGE STREET
No 11

AND

BRIDGE STREET ROW EAST
No 11

(Formerly listed as BRIDGE STREET AND ROW (East side) No.11 Street and No.11 Row, previously listed as: BRIDGE STREET No.11 Street & No.11 Row)

10/01/72

GV
II*

Number 11 Bridge Street and 11 Bridge Street Row East comprises a medieval stone undercroft below a Row shop and townhouse of C17 date. The C17 timber frame partially survives but the upper part of the façade was rebuilt as a replica of the earlier building in the C20. The Row shop was purchased in 1804 by Lowe and Sons, Gold and Silversmiths, who had previously had premises in The Pentice, an extension to St Peters Church at The Cross. They moved to number 11 Bridge Street Row when The Pentice was demolished for road widening and have been in continuous occupation since. The company can trace their origins back to at least 1770 and have a long-standing relationship with the dignitaries of the City as well as producing cups and trophies for the racecourse and silverware for the Royal family. The upper storeys include a museum about the Lowe Company’s history. In 2022, the undercroft shop was also in retail use. The building is constructed of sandstone and brick.

EXTERIOR: the building is of four storeys including the undercroft and Row level.
The undercroft has a shopfront to the street with a recessed central doorway. To each side is a single-pane wing-light and a single-pane front window, all in an early-C20 manner. To the south are 10 sandstone steps, repaired in concrete, up to the Row. There are sandstone end-piers through the undercroft and Row storeys.

The Row level has a plain timber rail on simply moulded balusters to the front opening and the return to the steps, with two cast-iron intermediate columns. The Row has a sloped boarded stallboard measuring 2.0m from front to back and a terrazzo-paved Row walkway. The shopfront is probably of the early C19 but is altered. It has grooved pilasters, panelled wood stall-risers and a recessed central modern glazed door. To each side is a single-pane wing light and a single-pane front window with moulded slender frames. The shopfront has a small fascia. To the south is a door to a back passage with four flush panels. Above the Row is a plaster ceiling with exposed timbers. A shop fascia sign covers the Row-top front bressumer.

The front elevation to the third and fourth storeys has been rebuilt in C20 brick but is approximately in its C17 to C18 form. The windows have stone sills and wedge lintels. The third storey has three nearly flush sash windows, which are now of two-over-two panes. The fourth storey has two recessed casement windows of two eight-pane lights without mullions. There is a stone-coped front gable with a cast-iron rainwater pipe and head to each side.

INTERIOR: an C18 brick cross-wall divides the front and back parts of the medieval undercroft. The front part, which is now a small shop, has a central oak chamfered Samson post 0.37m square with chamfers that are stopped at the top but not at the bottom, with a heavy oak pad carrying a beam 0.45m wide by 0.21m high, running from front to back. The walls are lined. In the rear part of the undercroft, reached by C18 stone steps from the Row shop, the beam has been cut off, but the medieval sandstone side-walls, the patched rear wall with a corbel which formerly carried the beam, and a sole-plate in the north wall which is level with the former beam, are all visible. There is an C18 chimney breast of brick and steps against the south wall.

The Row shop has a good Edwardian hardwood interior, with a stair to an arcaded gallery at third storey level. The arcade has tapered square posts with entasis, round arches, triple keys and a chamfered oak beam, probably of the C17, across the shop and rear passage.

The chamber above the Row has a C17 beam which is morticed for a former stud partition. To the east, the rear wing has Georgian brickwork and a Georgian window. A narrow stair leads to the altered fourth storey which has some oak studding, wattle-and-daub and a C17 trenched-purlin trussed roof. The grading is primarily for the medieval undercroft; the intact interior of the Edwardian Row shop is the best example of its period in Chester.

Listing NGR: SJ4054666253

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17552127

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy