Description

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/402 (South side) 10/01/72 Watergate House (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET Watergate House)

GV II*

Town house, then headquarters of North Western Command, now offices. 1820. By Thomas Harrison. For Henry Potts, Clerk of the Peace. Flemish bond brown brick, with stone dressings later stuccoed; grey slate roofs with lead rolls. EXTERIOR: basement and 2 storeys, with 3 sashes to each storey of main block on north, west and east fronts; a probably contemporary service wing to south is recessed, east, and projects, west. The square plan of the main block, with main entrance at its north east corner giving access through a lobby to a central top-lit hall, allows principal rooms on all 4 sides. A 2-storey convex quadrant recessed into the north-east corner contains the main entrance with curved 8-panel door, 4-pane sidelights and 3-pane overlight in Ionic doorcase approached by 6 curved stone steps repaired in concrete; the second storey has a 12-pane sash in a stone architrave bearing the initials ER (Edwardus Rex). The north front to Watergate Street has three 9-pane sashes to basement, facing an area with stone retaining wall and cast-iron railings; each upper storey has 3 recessed 12-pane sashes with simple painted stone sills and gauged brick flat arches. All fronts have plinth, moulded band and cornice. The east front to Nicholas Street Mews has a barred opening in plinth, behind a raised pavement with damaged cast-iron railings on a round-topped stone base; each upper storey has 3 sashes as on north front; 6 repaired stone steps, rising parallel with the frontage, lead to each side of the access landing to a door of 6 flush panels with blocked overlight, left. The recessed service wing behind a shallow brick-walled yard, has an altered door; a 12-pane recessed sash with one blocked window opening to each of the 2 storeys above and an added dormer to attic. The west front to garden has a broad segmental central brick bow containing a curved tripartite french sash of 8;12;8 panes with a tripartite sash of 4;12;4 panes above; to each side there is a 12-pane recessed sash to each storey. A raised stone pavement has a grated recess for a

basement window. The projecting service wing, right, has a damaged 16-pane sash to lower storey, with a similar window and a blocked opening above. The south elevation to the service wing has a 20-pane recessed sash and a damaged tripartite sash of 4;12;4 panes to the lower storey, three 20-pane sashes to the second storey and 2 blocked openings to the attic storey; the lower portion, left, has a replaced boarded door with overlight, a 16-pane sash to each side and three 20-pane sashes to upper storey. INTERIOR: detailed notes of the interior could not be taken. The plan is probably unique. The entrance leads through a domed circular corner lobby to the octagonal central hall with a pair of pillars, west, supporting a gallery-landing. The stone main stair south has moulded iron balusters. Conversion to offices has left structure and detail largely undamaged, most notably the west range of rooms (Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-: 47-48).

Listing NGR: SJ4022066191

External Links

• Watergate House, Chester at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7974114

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

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)