Details
CHESTER CITY (IM)
SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW
595-1/3/394 (South side)
28/07/55 No.41 Street and Nos.51 & 53 Row
(Bishop Lloyd's House)
(Formerly Listed as:
WATERGATE STREET
No.41 Street & Nos.51 & 53 Row
(Bishop Lloyd's House))
GV I
2 medieval undercrofts beneath 2 town houses, now shops,
meeting rooms and flat. Rebuilt early C17 and heavily restored
1890s by TM Lockwood. Sandstone; timber frames with panels of
brick, carved oak and plaster; slate roofs.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys including Street and Row levels, plus
attic. Each tenement, with gable to front, is symmetrical
above the Row bressumers, of vernacular and Vernacular Revival
character, with some Classical detail. No.53 (right), dated
1615, bears evidence of George Lloyd, Bishop of Sodor and Man
1599-1605 and of Chester 1605 to 1615, the year of his death.
No.51 was refronted by TM Lockwood c1890, reflecting the
composition of No.53; the following description distinguishes
the 2 former tenements.
Front of left undercroft and No.51 Row:
Lockwood replaced the Row stallboard with stone steps parallel
with the street, and a landing to right, and repositioned the
Row-front posts supporting the chamber above. The steps have a
wrought-iron railing, the landing and Row an oak handrail on
shaped splat balusters; spiral-moulded colonnette below each
end of the landing. The Row has a pier of stone and brick,
left, faced with a spiral-moulded colonnette on a corbel. A
late C19 Row post at each end of the landing, with colonnette,
has a Jacobean post behind with brackets shaped as bearded
giants, beasts and an owl; Lockwood added lighter brackets
shaped as figures. The shopfront is modern. The bressumer
above the Row, sloping with the street, has dentil arris and a
patterned face. The third storey is divided into 3 bays by oak
pilasters of Jacobean classical form. 10 small panels separate
the bressumer and the chamber window which has 2 moulded
mullions and 2 transoms in each bay, with shaped leaded
glazing. Above the window is a band of plaster, then a
slightly jettied tie-beam with dentil arris and criss-cross
decoration. The 3-light mullioned attic window stands proud of
the small-framed gable. The bargeboards have carved cornices
and an ornate bargepost.
Front of right undercroft and No.53 Row:
4 piers at street level have spiral-moulded colonnettes to
front, on carved-head corbels; central doorway; inserted
18-pane bow window to each side. Above each pier is a late C19
Row-post with similar colonnette; Jacobean posts behind have
bearded giants, beasts and an owl as brackets; oak rail on
shaped splat balusters. Modern shopfront to Row. Bressumer to
Row has dentil arris and richly patterned face. A row of 8
recessed panels between bressumer and chamber window has the
arms of James I with inscription, the arms of Sodor and Man
and the date 1615, with 3 Biblical scenes to left and 2 to
right. The tripartite chamber window has 4 oak pilasters of
Classical derivation; 2 moulded mullions and a transom in each
bay and shaped leaded glazing. The ornately-patterned jetty
beam above the window has a carved-head bracket at each end.
Between the jetty and tie-beam is a row of 10 arched and
carved panels, with 3 panels to each side of the 3-light attic
window above; the subjects, largely beasts, appear heraldic.
Above the window are small-framed plaster panels; the
bargeboards have carved cornices; the bargepost is ornate. All
windows were heavily restored or replaced by Thomas Lockwood,
1890s.
INTERIOR: the 2 undercrofts have probably medieval walls of
coursed rubble sandstone; brick barrel-vaults, probably C18.
At Row level most surfaces in the east house are covered; full
height panels in east wall; 2 chamfered cross-beams have
covered surfaces. The west house, with modern brick
partitions, has no visible features of interest. The stair to
the third storey has Chinese-influenced balustrade and
vase-splat balusters to the landing; strapwork plaster ceiling
with cornice of Classical derivation over landing, cloakroom
and ladies' lavatory. Broad oak door of 2 rows of 3 panels on
big HL hinges to east chamber; oak bolection-moulded fielded
panels, a row below dado and a tall row above it; fire
surround has entablature, with prominent keystone, on Doric
columns; panelled overmantel of plaster or stone has eagles in
curved broken entablature; iron fireplace; frieze to west wall
has running foliar decoration; plaster ceiling has oval,
square and lozenge panels containing raised decoration;
8-panel door on HL hinges to west chamber. The west house has
landing-window and altered 6-panel double doors to chamber by
Lockwood; small-framing and fragments of tie-beam and rafter
at junction between the 2 houses. The chamber has
vigorously-expressed C17 fireplace and overmantel, incorrectly
Classical, having arched central panel with Cupid riding a
lion in Arcadian setting; 3 chamfered beams, the front and
middle ones moulded, on decorated corbels, west; small frieze,
east; vigorous frieze with sea-monsters, west, partly hidden
by small-panelling; recess with repositioned oak lintel south
of fireplace; moulded plaster ceiling panels.
The flat (No.51A) in the attic storey gives access to the
stair, now bolted off from the third storey; of 3 flights, it
has closed string, fluted square newels and 2 balusters with
spiral-moulded shafts-on- vases per step, carrying a heavy
swept handrail, all oak, with softwood steps probably
inserted. The portion of the flat over No.51 has plain
steeply-pitched principal rafters, purlins and diagonally-set
ridge, all of oak, carrying through from front to rear gable;
the floor plan is altered. The portion above No.53 has a front
and middle chamber, a stair bay and a closet, now bathroom,
with extension for present stair at rear. An arch-braced truss
between the front and middle chambers now partly filled with
small-framing suggests a former open hall or upper hall; the
chamfered purlins have C17 decorated plaster covering; the
ceilings of chambers, stair-bay and closet have reeded plaster
margins and plaster decorative moulded features of C17
character.
(Chester Rows Research Project: Brown AN & Grenville JC &
Turner RC: Watergate Street: Chester: 1988-: 5,11,20,30).
Listing NGR: SJ4040066232
