Description

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW
595-1/3/418 (North side)
28/07/55 No.68 Street
(Formerly Listed as:
WATERGATE STREET
No.68)

GV II*

Town house, now shop and offices. 1729 for Alderman Henry
Bennett, altered probably later C18 and front rebuilt
retaining original features mid C20. Painted stone,
stone-dressed brown brick; grey slate roof of 4 narrow spans
with ridges parallel with Watergate Street.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys plus cellars. The front to the lowest
storey, added late C18 or early C19 is of rusticated stone
with moulded plinth, recessed porch to right in moulded
basket-arched case with five steps to house (now office) door
of 6 fielded panels and shop door, left; shop window with
moulded stone surround; cornice. The rebuilt brick front above
incorporates three 15-pane flush sashes to the second storey,
that at centre in shouldered and eared architrave with a lion
bearing a Cross of Lorraine on the face of a raised triple
keystone; the sash to each side has a painted stone sill and
an acanthus keystone. A substantial cornice at the base of the
attic storey is returned at each end; two 4-pane sashes under
cambered heads with moulded keystones; the upper cornice
carries a low parapet with moulded coping.
The west side to Trinity Street is of old brown brick. The
first storey has a recessed porch with a half-glazed 4-panel
door, a small 9-pane flush sash and 2 replaced tripartite
sashes under cambered heads. 3-course brick floor-level bands
to the second and third storeys. In the second storey the
Venetian stair-window of 4;16;4 panes replaces the blocked
openings of a pair of sashes with a pair of circular windows
above; there is a small inserted second storey window and a
24-pane flush sash. The upper band is carried over the blocked
circular openings. The third storey has a 4-pane sash in a
rebuilt opening with cambered head and moulded keystone, and
three 12-pane flush sashes; each window is under the gable of
one of the four ridges; 3 lateral chimneys, the rearmost being
large; a narrow 2-storey rear wing. The rear has 2 visible
16-pane sashes to the second storey and a 16-pane sash and a
12-pane sash to the third storey.
INTERIOR: the cellars, in the manner of undercrofts, are
ceiled with a pair of long, parallel brick barrel-vaults. The

front chamber at former Row level, now a shop, has a C18
fireplace in its west wall, a former screen of 2 Tuscan
columns against its rear wall and a cornice. The stair hall
has a basket-arched doorway to the entrance-lobby and to the
rear east room which has a panelled dado and a cornice; the
rear east room and the front west room (the shop) have doors
of 8 fielded panels, the rear west room a door of 6 fielded
panels; the lobby door is renewed. The oak open-well stair
against the west wall is probably mid C18, with open string
displaying shallow overlapping steps, curtail steps, a heavy
swept rail on 3 barleysugar-on-vase balusters and a panelled
dado; a panelled embrasure to the stair window. The probably
original but now secondary stair is diagonally north-east of
the main stair, with open well, dado panelling to second
storey, dado rail to third storey and probably repaired turned
balusters. The second storey has a basket-arched doorway to
the rear east room, which also has a basket-arched recess,
doors of 8 fielded panels and embrasures with 2 panels under
windows. The third storey has doors of 2 and 4 fielded panels
and corner chimney-breast.
(Chester Rows Research Project: Brown AN & Grenville JC &
Turner RC: Watergate Street: Chester: 1988-: 33; Bartholomew
City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-: 104).

Listing NGR: SJ4033966247

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17552301

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

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)