Description

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SE BRIDGE STREET AND ROW
595-1/4/76 (East side)
10/01/72 No.55 Street and No.61 Row
(Formerly Listed as:
BRIDGE STREET
No.55 Street & No.61 Row)

GV II

Undercroft and town house, then undercroft shop and commercial
art gallery, now undercroft shop and 2 storey Row shop. The
undercroft is probably late C18, the Row and third storey 1889
probably by Thomas Edwards, formerly in practice at No.7, St
Werburgh Street (not included) as Kelly and Edwards, for David
Sherratt and, as freeholder, the first Duke of Westminster.
Brick and sandstone undercroft; timber-framed front with
plaster panels; brick side walls; brown tile roof, ridge at
right angle to street.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, expressed as 4; one bay.
The undercroft has a modern shopfront between fluted pilasters
with carved foliar bases. The front of the Row and upper
storeys is richly ornamented. 9 sandstone steps to the Row,
north; heavy timber rail to Row front and return on moulded
rectangular balusters; the sandstone upper parts of the
end-piers have griffin capitals; 2 intermediate posts with
linenfold reeding; sloped boarded stallboard 2.23m from front
to back; shopfront has incised patterns in end pilasters;
recessed central door has fielded base-panel; moulded frames
to wing and front windows; fascia with shaped brackets;
timber-framed plaster panels to ceiling; stopped moulded
chamfers to Row-top bressumer on ornate brackets; the central
pair of brackets form an arch inscribed SHERRATT & CO in
raised capitals. The third storey is expressed externally as 2
storeys. The slightly jettied sole-plate to the "third" storey
is inscribed .TO.GOD.MY.KING.AND.COUNTRY. The 8 arched panels
above contain reliefs inscribed: and departed into Egypt; in
whom I am well pleased; SUZANNA and the Elders; Joseph and his
Mistress; I call for my friends; Cain and Abel; Jeremiah;
praise him on the harpe. Above the 6 central panels 5 moulded
brackets support a pair of 4-light mullioned and transomed
leaded oriels separated by a round-arched niche holding a
life-size statue of a King Charles I with sword, gold orb,
sceptre and crown; the middle rail to each side of the oriels
has an ornate panel below and above. The ornate jetty beam to
the "fourth" storey, on carved end-brackets, is inscribed ART
GALLERY; a row of 10 ornate panels; a 5-light mullioned and

transomed casement with pictorial leaded glazing has 3 panels
to each side, each with 2 slightly S-curved herringbone
struts; a large and splendid wrought-iron hanging sign dated
1889 bears a shield, now blank. The cove-jettied gable has 4
brackets, each resting on a spiral-moulded colonnette; that on
the south corner-post is gone. The framing to the gable,
thinner than that below, has square panels with quadrant
braces; carved bargeboards and shaped finial; lateral chimney
set back, south.
INTERIOR: the extent to which the 1889 design of the interior
of the Row and third storey remains visible is unusual, for
Chester. 4 visible beams in the undercroft shop and the lower
part of the side walls are probably C18. The Row storey forms
2 chambers of the former gallery, linked through a depressed
plastered archway; the rear chamber has a hipped plaster
ceiling with a lantern of 5 lights to west and east and 3
lights to north and south, with former tinted chequerboard
leaded glazing remaining in 8 lights; the front chamber has a
substantial stair to the upper storey of 2 closed-string
flights with heavy turned newels, covered steps, 2 turned
balusters per step and heavy moulded rail; front windows as
described for the exterior; a 2-light window with slender
mullion, rounded corners and lattice leaded panes to the
stair, with 2 similar but smaller and round-arched, windows
above; the north wall is plain, the south wall has 3 simple
piers; 3 cased trusses on Gothic-moulded corbels; a 6-pane
ridge-light over the second bay and a south light over the
third bay.
HISTORICAL NOTE: "The Surveyor submitted plans of a new front
and alterations at Mr Sherratts, Bridge Street Row, prepared
by Mr Edwards, Architect."
(Improvement Committee Minutes: Chester City Council:
18/9/1889).

Listing NGR: SJ4057566136

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26656766

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

• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)