Bridge Street





Bridge Street, along with Northgate Street, Watergate Street and Eastgate Street, is one of the four original streets built inside Roman Chester. All four streets meet at the High Cross.

In Roman Chester the Via Praetoria marked the southern approach to the Roman Headquarters Building, whose front entrance faced straight down what is now Bridge Street. The the upper part of Bridge Street would have been the location of officers quarters, while further down were the legionary baths and the legionary hospital. The Roman City formally ended at the bottom of upper Bridge Street with the South Gate ("Porta Praetoria"), although there were further buildings outside of the walls of a non-military nature including the "Mansio", a roadside inn or posting house.

In the Dark Ages when the Walls were enlarged, Lower Bridge Street was contained within them. Either at that time, or soon after, the Lower Bridge Street area seems to have become a centre for Scandinavian settlement, with at least two churches in the area having Scandinavian connections. In Mediaeval times the upper part of the street played host to the various markets held in Chester: these only later moved to the area around the current Market Square. Bridge Street was paved in around 1586. Prior to the dissolution of the various religious houses much of the land in Bridge Street was under their ownership. During the English Civil War, when Chester was besieged by Parliamentary forces in 1645, King Charles I entered the City via the Old Dee Bridge with 600 horse and stayed the night at Sir Francis Gamul's house on Lower Bridge Street (Gamul House today). From around the time of the Civil War, enclosure of The Rows, particularly in Lower Bridge Street, removed many of the existing Row structures.

The Rows once continued into Lower Bridge Street but only traces remain today (most clearly at no. 11 and at Gamul House, where a stepped platform at the frontage provides an interesting clue as to the possible origin of the Rows). By Georgian and Victorian times the better off were tending to desert the city centre, shop-owners increasingly abandoned accommodation over their premises to live in more salubrious suburbs, however, Bridge Street continued to be affluent. The Bridgegate itself dates from 1781-2 (by Joseph Turner), replacing an earlier structure and the spectacular waterworks tower. Lower Bridge Street was at this time lined almost continuously with tall 17th and 18th century buildings, being a popular location for the gentry to build houses. Today many Georgian townhouses survive and this era provides the dominant character of Lower Bridge Street. In the 1968 Conservation in Chester report the Bridgegate area was highlighted as "one of the worst examples of area decline", but following significant conservation and sensitive re-construction work in the last forty years the situation today is much improved and the area contributes a strong historic character to the City.


 * Bridge Street on Chester Tourist (good for shopping information);
 * Vanished Pubs in Bridge Street (Mr Howe is available to explain the history of Chester pubs for a few pints per pub).

Listed (and other) Buildings
Batenham says of Bridge Street that it:


 * "Is to the south of the Cross and is about 550 yards long and tolerably wide. The antiquity of the city is in no place more conspicuous than in this interesting street every gradation of architecture from the rude clumsy wooden hat to the open airy commodious hotel is here displayed and it is not perhaps the least worthy of observation to see the awkward confinement of low close rooms gradually yielding to the more healthful taste of modern building. The original plan of the houses, (if plan there was) seems to have been in the cottage style with the gable end of each to face the street. This mode certainly gives great extent of premises behind but renders the inner rooms and staircases rather dark. The curious observer will discover in this street that the square brick fronts of some of the houses are nothing more than a wall carried up as high as the ridge of the roof, thus having the appearance of a handsome modern house while the interior retains most of its original formation".

Upper Bridge Street West (Cross to Commonhall Lane)


The "Selds" are often mentioned in early records. That "Selds" were some form of marketplace is beyond doubt, but its far from clear whether these selds were constructed in the street in front of the buildings fronting The Rows, or top of the rows (and still along them), back from the rows (like long narrow shops) or even behind The Rows like shopping malls or small market halls. By the late 14thC the land at the corner of Bridge Street and Watergate Street was referred to as the stone or "staven" selds. Much earlier deeds from the 1270's refer to the "selda lapidea" (stone selds), so it appears that they were in place by as early as the 13thC. A "corvisor" was (originally) a leather worker using high quality Cordovan leather from Spain for such things as harness, gloves and riding boots. In 1356 the Mayor and corporation granted to William deBurgh (of Chester) a small piece of land which was identified as being next to the "new steps" which led towards "le Coryserrowe" (Corvisor's Row) and were located "at the end of the fishboards next to the the pillory of Chester, in that corner towards the Church of St Peter". Here then, the word "Row" is being associated with an elevated walkway running south from the Cross along the west side of Bridge street. While the steps were "new" in 1356, the Row appears older - before 1279 Robert Le Barn granted some properties "between the land of the Hospital of St John and that of Ralph of the Pillory" to Vale Royal Abbey. These are known from later records to contain premises used by a corvisor. A seld used at that time by the Corvisors/Shoemakers occupied the same site and appears to have had undercrofts ("celaria") beneath it by 1314.



For convenience, the addresses used her are the street addresses (the row addresses can differ up or down).

Numbers 2-8
Number #1, Watergate Street/2-8 Bridge Street: a Vernacular Revival corner building by Lockwood, possibly his best in Chester, erected for the 1st Duke of Westminster in 1892. The Ruabon brick, yellow sandstone and half-timbered facade shows Lockwood's inventive use of Baroque and Renaissance ornamentation. While this was the site of the mediaval "Staven Selds" of that nothing remains. Indeed, early photographs show a brick building already on the corner site before 1892, although the The Rows running through had been preserved. As was his usual practice Lockwood neither reused nor retained any of the earlier structure. On the corner the Row arcade has one round and one elliptical arch to Bridge Street and 2 elliptical arches to Watergate Street. The upper two storeys of the fourth bay in Bridge Street have a close studding of oak, jetties to each storey and herringbone struts to gables each with a richly carved frieze, console brackets and grotesque heads. The upper-storey windows in brick walls have moulded stone surrounds, mullions and transoms, while there are oriel windows on the oak-framed walls, some with round-arched middle lights. A wrought-iron sign bracket is provided on each street, that to Watergate Street having a bronze eagle's head. The brick-built and the half-timbered overlap as the Row seems to fit seamlessly into the arches at the corner. There is an oak-framed hip-roofed porch at Row level before No.3 Watergate Street, which shelters an S-shaped stair leading from the street to The Rows. Hughes (and many others) tell the following story:




 * "A little way down this Row was an ancient tavern called the Blue Posts supposed to be the identical house now occupied by Mr Brittain woollen draper. In this house a curious incident is stated to have occurred in 1558 which tradition has handed down to us in the following terms. It appears that Dr Henry Cole, Dean of St Paul's, was charged by Queen Mary with a commission to the council of Ireland which had for its object the persecution of the Irish protestants. The doctor stopped one night here on his way to Dublin and put up at the Blue Posts then kept by a Mrs Mottershead. In this house he was visited by the mayor to whom in the course of conversation he related his errand in confirmation of which he took from his cloak bag a leather box exclaiming in a tone of exultation: "Here is what will lash the heretics of Ireland!". This announcement was caught by the landlady who had a brother in Dublin and while the commissioner was escorting his worship down stairs, the good woman prompted by an affectionate regard for the safety of her brother opened the box took out the commission and placed in lieu thereof a pack of cards with the knave of clubs uppermost. This the doctor carefully packed up without suspecting the transformation nor was the deception discovered till his arrival in the presence of the lord deputy and privy council at the castle of Dublin. The surprise of the whole assembly on opening the supposed commission may be more easily imagined than described. The doctor in short was immediately sent back for a more satisfactory authority but before he could return to Ireland Queen Mary had breathed her last. It should be added that the ingenuity and affectionate zeal of the landlady were rewarded by Elizabeth with a pension of £40 a year."

Another writer in "The Old Inns of Old England" states that:


 * "The former "Blue Posts" .. was long since refronted in respectable, but dull, red brick, and is now, or was recently, a boot-shop. But although no hint of its former self is given to the passer-by, those who venture to make a request, are shown a fine upstairs room, with an elaborately pargeted vceiling, still known as the "Card Room".



The Cheshire Sheaf (July 1863) implies that the "Blue Posts" stood on the site of Number 8 and as noted above, old photographic evidence shows that there was a brick building on the site before Lockwood removed every trace. It is also possible that the Blue Posts was on the opposite side of Bridge Street.

There does seem to have been some special relevance assigned to the Jack of Clubs, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I there were reports of the Jack of Clubs being left hanging in desecrated churches



Number 10
Number #10 Bridge Street; a somewhat intact 17thC timber-framed building with an undercroft, but restored over the years. The deep stall-board, 3m from back to front, is mostly 17thC with a minor 19thC encroachment. The fascia above the Row opening (the balustrade to the raised stallboard occupies almost the full height of the opening) is moulded and above is a band of five distinctive quatrefoil panels, which have probably been "refixed" during restoration (compare the modern building with that shown in the drawings by Louise Rayner and the old photograph above - in both cases the front of the building has a sign saying "COMPTON HOUSE" where the distinctive quatrefoil panels should be). The third storey has a slight jetty at sill level; the rendered wall above is painted as if timber-framed with herringbone braces. The jettied rendered gable, is painted as if timber-framed with herringbone struts. The shaped, fretted bargeboards and finial are probably 19thC imitations of 17thC elements. Inside the former arrangement of the building appears to have been a chamber above the Row walk and former Row level shop, a galleried hall open to the roof and a small rear chamber. Internal visible features of the 17thC structure include the north wallplate on posts and an inserted corbel.

Number 12
Number #12 Bridge Street: one of the most impressive buildings on the rows, formerly known as: Nos.2 AND 4 Cowper House BRIDGE STREET ROW (also formerly familiar to many as "Bookland"). The property was improved by Thomas Cowper a Royalist, and Mayor of Chester 1641-2, possibly after severe damage in the Civil War. A sandstone fireplace above the diagonal beams in the Row walk is inscribed TC (Thomas Cowper) 1661 to each side of a blank shield, and has a substantial projecting, moulded mantel. The property extends over 4 storeys including a medieval vaulted undercroft and Row level. A flight of 11 repaired stone steps north of the modern shopfront lead to the Row walk. On the ground floor the front undercroft, its present floor two steps below street level, is lined, however, six steps lead down through a mid 19thC Gothic Revival stone screen with archway on colonnettes and flanking windows in 13thC style, within a broad recessed arched panel, to a spectacular 6-bay quadripartite rib-vaulted rear undercroft. The undercroft was re-discovered in 1839 and is now thought to date from 1350-75, possibly even a little earlier. The undercroft has squared sandstone rubble walling, truncated-cone-shaped rib-corbels, deeply chamfered ribs and a 3-light window at the west end, formerly with trefoil heads but now heightened and with round heads. A trefoil archway in the fifth bay leads to a stone stair within the stone party wall with No.14, rising backward, and displaying the underside of an upper stair apparently serving Number 14 (which is actually not the case!). The rear undercroft was found and excavated in 1839, when the floor level may have been lower approx 0.6m. The front undercroft is 16m long, the rear undercroft 13m. The stall-board is again quite deep, approx 3m from front to back. There is carved fascia above Row opening, above that a seven-light mullioned and transomed leaded window c1870 stretching across most of the frontage. The strap-work carved on the jetty bressumer to the fourth storey is again inscribed TC (for Thomas Cowper) 1664 - which presumably refers to the date of repairs after the siege. Hughes writes of the undercroft as follows:






 * "Previous to 1839, no special archaeological interest attached to this locality; but in that year while excavating for a warehouse behind the shop of Messrs Powell and Edwards, cutlers, a discovery was made which at once set all the antiquaries of Chester "by the ears". The late Rev J Eaton Precentor of the Cathedral, an architectural authority in his day, made the following Report upon this Ancient Crypt as it is called for the use of the proprietors .. The ancient Crypt discovered by Messrs Powell and Edwards is of an oblong form running from east to west The following are its dimensions viz length forty two feet breadth fifteen feet three inches height from the surface of the floor to the intersection of the groinings of the roof fourteen feet This Crypt was partially lighted through the upper part of the west end in which there are three small windows divided by stone mullions and protected by iron bars The upper part of the groining on the centre window appears to have been cut away to admit of more light On examining the intersection of the groins marks were discovered from the lead on the stone work that a couple of lamps had been used for lighting The entrance to the east end is by a flight of steps cut out of the rock to the height of three feet On the south side is an Anglo Norman Gothic doorway which is attained by three or four semicircular steps and forms an outlet within its inner and outer wall by another flight of steps to the surface above the building In a niche on the south side of the window is a font in excellent preservation "

It is interesting to compare photographs of this building with Louise Rayner's drawings. In a drawing made before 1873, number 12 does not have any "half-timbering on the front, but in a drawing dated after 1873 (using Lockwood's 1873 build as a guide) it can be seen that Cowper House has quite changed in appearance, now looking much more like its modern self. It can also be seen from Rayner's earlier drawing that prior to the 1870 alterations the windows at Row + 1 level were far less extensive.


 * Cowper House on Wikipedia;



Number 14
Number 14 Bridge Street: this undercroft and town house, appears to be 17thC from Row level upwards, but has been much altered internally. The south wall has been breached to create an extension to the south behind number #16, and there is no visible evidence of the staircase arrangement in the north wall which can be seen at Number #12. Access to the undercroft is not normally practical, but it is stated to have approx 4 feet 6 inches headroom beneath present street level floor, with a stone flag floor and squared rubble sandstone walls. It is believed to project beneath the pavement, and to be approx 30 feet long under the building. Despite its plain appearance the facade of number 14 seems to be on of the least "messed about" buildings in this section of Bridge Street as it consistently has the same appearance in all of the depictions of it.

Cowpers house may have included both 12 and 14

Numbers 16-18
Numbers 16 and 18 Bridge street, are listed, but of little interest. The rainwater head is dated 1804. Randolph Caldecott (22 March 1846 – 12 February 1886) a British artist and illustrator, was born here. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honour. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognised by the Royal Academy. Caldecott greatly influenced illustration of children's books during the nineteenth century.



Number 20
Number 20 Bridge street is a tall Vernacular Revival building by Lockwood (1873), probably on site of two former undercrofts and town houses. This is Lockwod's earliest work in The Rows. and as usual in his work, retained no elements of the previous building, except perhaps the the flight of 12 steep steps south of the shopfront which ascend to the Row (these are visible in a pre-1873 photograph of the previous building). The tile and Art-Deco shopfront dating from the 1930's (from the "Plane Tree Cafe") no longer exists. Above the Row front a deep bressumer carries a jetty-beam on brackets and supports a front which is half-timbered with a brick infil. The third and fourth storeys have three bays, with the projecting central bay capped by a gable and the side bays small-framed. The third storey has a central canted 5-light oriel with convex pargeted sub-panels flanked by a cross-window in each side-bay. The fourth storey is again jettied, with the central bay having a timber balcony on shaped brackets with balusters and ornate corner-posts supporting the gable. As before, there are 2 cross-windows and each side-bay has a mullioned 2-light casement. The third and fourth storey windows retain shaped leaded stained glazing in upper lights but the former rectangular leaded panes in lower lights are removed. The gable has a coved jetty, herringbone struts, arched bargeboards and a weather vane.

Previous to the Lookwood building a rather ramshackle pile sttod on this spot and was distinguished by a large oriel window, which is shown both by Rayner and by Batenham.



Numbers 22-26
Numbers 22-26 the "Dutch Houses". This structure, with a distinctive facade and twisted, "barley-sugar" columns appears to have be built in medieval times. However, little of what can be seen today dates from that period. By the 1970's different parts of the building were in different ownerships and in order to carry out the urgent structural repairs needed the City Council purchased all these individual parts. The restoration (1973-1975) required was heavy and extensive, and involved the insertion of much steelwork and effectively the removal and replacement of the entire facade. Early photographs show that the barley-sugar columns had already been partly removed from the Row + 2 level. All that remains of the original building front are the sandstone pillars.


 * Dutch Houses or wikipedia;

Number 28
Number 28, formerly "Ye Old Vaults" dating from around 1789 - (see rainwater head) which closed in 2002. The concrete footbridge over Commonhall Street was built in the 1970's.



Number 30
Number 30: this undercroft and town house, later became a public house, before 1899 the public house was the Harp and Crown, thereafter the Grotto. A painting by Louise Rayner shows the buildings as they were prior to renewal and with the stall-board partly enclosed.

Un-executed plans and perspective exist for rebuilding by John Douglas (dated 1873) the present structure was re-built in 1900 on amore modest scale by Douglas and Minshull. The front to Bridge Street has a carved bressumer above the Row opening and supporting capitals which are slightly out of true, it is unique for its period in central Chester in being no taller than the building replaced. The stall-board, 2m from front to back, formerly had an enclosed northern bay, used as a barber's shop. An S-shaped flight of steps, replaced in concrete, descends to Commonhall Street and a 1970s concrete footbridge links to the Row of No.28.

The street-level shopfront has stone piers which are continued up through the Row level. The ceiling above the Row and stallboard is plastered and a tall shaped bracket supports the jettied third storey at the corner. The north bay of the small-framed third storey has a jettied front gable similar to that of the previous building. Then stone steps and one wooden step lead up from street to Row.


 * Number 30 on Wikipedia;





Number 32
Number 32: the rainwater head of this building is dated 1811, and the undercroft extends back over forty meters, (which makes it the longest on the rows, and possibly a surviving seld due to its extreme narrowness). The undercroft is spanned by heavy timbers which date from the 19thC rebuilding. The walls of the undercroft are, where visible, of coursed rubble sandstone and later brickwork, plastered in part. The first five chamfered oak beams are not closely datable, but are not mediaeval and probably date from the early 19thC rebuilding. Behind the 4-storey portion is an inserted concrete flat roof on the medieval walls, behind which the sandstone side walls continue, barrel-vaulted in brick in the 18thC, to the sandstone rear wall. A cottage at the rear contains an early 18thC staircase and panelled room.

Number 34
Number 34 probably dates from the 1770s. There are no external features of casual interest.

Number 36


Number 36 (once "Shuttleworth's Crypt") has a flight of 10 repaired steps to the Row and the rear wall of the Row had (it has now gone) a probably 16thC impressively studded 5-board door on wrought-iron long hinges under a 18thC blocked fanlight with architrave, cornice and key of timber. This door (now replaced with a glass door) previously opened to a passage leading through the house (see OS map of 1875).



The undercroft is early to mid C14. The present floor, 3 steps below pavement level, is inserted with the lower part of the undercroft beneath. The walls are of squared sandstone rubble with some C17 and C20 brickwork. From the front there are 3 oak beams parallel with the street and 2 altered or renewed beams, then an impressive double-chamfered full-width 2-centre sandstone arch, a beam of large scantling, a second sandstone arch detailed as the first arch, a chamfered beam on stone corbels, a small C18 brick barrel-vault and sandstone rear walls. 2 bays of the ceiling have broad oak joists, the other bays where visible largely narrower joists. Beyond the rear arch the joists support visible rubble infill. In the cellar a beam used to be dated 1593 (it has since been removed), but was probably repositioned there from an upper storey when the house was refronted 18thC. Internally, a largely intact late 16thC timber frame building hides behind the late 18thC brick facade. Much of the c1600 timber frame is visible in the third storey. The fourth storey is lined and partitioned but the form of the roof and the position of partitions suggests that the timber framing may largely be intact. Tree-ring data shows that several of the beams in the undercroft were growing between 1073 and 1317. Rayner's watercolour (above) shows that the plain bressumer was once supported by a pair of "Tuscan" columns, presumably of iron like the ones next door, these have also been absent for some time.

Number 38


Number 38 was extensively renovated 1897, by Douglas and Fordham for the 1st Duke of Westminster in the Vernacular Revival style, and later altered again when it became a bank (it later ceased to be a bank). The asymmetric building is of pale yellow sandstone, stone-dressed brick and timber frame with plaster panels, with the south pier canted at the corner of Pierpoint Lane. The Row front of three basket arches has carved balusters, moulded handrail, carved timber pilasters against the end piers and two carved posts. This is one of the very few "new" buildings by Douglas to incorporate parts of the rows (see Number 30 above). The jettied close-studded third storey has its bressumer on ornate corner-bracket with carved-head corbel and mock-gargoyles at the caps of the posts. The front has two canted six-light oriels and a gable-end with a concave timber-framed apron, 2 transoms, trefoil heads to upper lights and leaded glazing. The short north bay has a three-light trefoil-headed leaded casement. The jettied gable has a carved cambered tie-beam dated 1897 on six shaped brackets, herringbone struts and shaped and pierced bargeboards.


 * Number 38 on Wikpedia;

Number 40
Number 40 is a Tudor style building of 1858 designed by James Harrison and built, in loose Gothic Revival style for Welsby's wine merchants. A projecting porch, to the north, and a shaped timber bracket, to the south, support a projecting balcony in front of the Row walk. The third storey has a stone-corbelled four-light canted oriel with four-pane sashes in shoulder-arched lights and a hipped lead roof. The fourth storey has a moulded band beneath the flush sill of a triple sash with arched heads. The Builder v.16 p.269, April 17 1858 reported on this site:


 * "In excavating for new buildings opposite the Feathers Inn, several bases of Roman character have been discovered at a depth of 4 feet below the surface. They are in their original positions, forming a colonnade, placed four yards apart, resting on large blocks of stone 12 inches thick. The new building will be of brick, with white stone dressings, in the medieval style of fourteenth century, presenting a gable to the street, and having a projecting bow-window to the room over the Row. A shop in Bridge Street Row is also to have timber work characteristic of Chester in the fourteenth century. Mr. Harrison is architect to both buildings."

Number 42
Number 42 is an undercroft and town house that was rebuilt c1720, extended to rear and refaced to Bridge Street in sandstone and brick c1860. No early fabric is retained in the lower part of the building, but the listing record states that the upper floors retain a staircase, paneling and plasterwork of an early 18thC character.



Number 44
Number 44 is an undercroft and town house rebuilt probably late C19 as an extension to the then department store ("Owen Owen", which finally closed its doors in 1999) comprising Nos.44, 46, 48 and 50. There are few interesting features other than the cast-iron columns behind the modern shopfront which continue upwards at row level as two cast-iron Doric columns.

Number 46
Number 46 an undercroft and town house, probably 1760s, demolished for redevelopment as part of a department store late 19thC. Facade of third and fourth storeys is supposedly a facsimile of the Georgian front. Behind the facade, the then department store removed all traces of any earlier structure.

Numbers 48-52
Numbers 48-52 the listing for this entry ncludes: No.2 Whitefriars: an undercroft and town house, on the site of the service wing of a large medieval town house whose hall was in Nos 48 & 50 Bridge Street. Together, these formed the largest known Rows building. The earliest fabric is the "three old arches" facade (marked "1274AD"), which date stylistically to the thirteenth century.

During the early or mid fourteenth century numbers 48-50 appear to have been combined with the property to the south to allow the construction of a major mansion with a hall that was parallel with the rows. This hall (12.4 by 8.88 meters) is the largest surviving on the Rows. The hall at row level (now a shop) is impressive, extends to row +1 level and has an east wall which contains four mediaeval doorways. A 1970's restoration of the east wall has not disguised the location of the screeen partition. The hall also contains a 16th century open fireplace with a 19th century cast iron range.

The cellar to No.52 Bridge Street, is rock-cut, largely Georgian with Flemish bond brickwork, but has some medieval stonework in the rear wall. The basement of No.2 White Friars at former undercroft level is largely Georgian with brick barrel-vaults and a brick-arched wine-bin. Of the other 14thC undercrofts only number 50 has retained its spanning arch.

Numbers 50 and 52 are the only examples of Row enclosures in Bridge Street and are tentatively believed to have been enclosed in 1697, when Alderman Francis Skellern (who had been Mayor of Chester in 1689-90) was granted permission to enclose the Row.


 * Three Old Arches on Wikipedia;

Number 1


Number 1 This 1888 Vernacular Revival building is by T. M. Lockwood. Often said to be for the 1st Duke of Westminster, but already owned in 1889 by Chester City Council. It replaces a timber-framed building which incorporated the 16thC cistern, which was itself at some point replaced by a brick building. About the year 1300 water was taken from a spring at Christleton known as the 'Abbot's Well' and conveyed by earthenware pipes installed by monks under a patent granted by Edward the First, to cisterns situated at Boughton and in the cloisters of the Monastery (now the Cathedral). In 1537, Doctor Wall (the last warden of the Franciscans) began the building of lead conduits at Boughton for conveying water to the Bridge Gate. A more northerly line for Walls pipework would have been necessary to supply the friary, and Wall perhaps changed the line of the aqueduct when he knew that the friary was to be dissolved. It came to be used as a public supply, but did not meet all the town's needs.

A well sunk in Northgate Street in 1572 did not find water, and in 1573 the then mayor, Richard Dutton, brought an unnamed workman from London to build a conduit from the Dee to the High Cross. By 1574 the plan had been altered: the corporation gave a contract to Peter Morris (or Maurice, possibly even Maurits) to excavate a spring at St. Giles's well in Spital Boughton and convey the water in lead pipes to the cross at St. Bridget's church. Morris was almost certainly Dutton's contractor of the previous year, for a Dutch hydraulic engineer of that name was active in London in the 1580s. A more effective attempt to alter Wall's conduit was made in 1583, when the Assembly decided to have it realigned along Foregate Street and Eastgate Street to a cistern at the High Cross on the corner of Bridge Street. The site was chosen by four benefactors of the scheme, the three Offley brothers and John Rogers of London. A stone cistern house was decorated with the arms of the city, the earls of Derby and Leicester, one of the Offleys, and Dr. Wall. The pipes were lead. By 1586 the scheme was causing problems: the spring did not provide enough water and the mason had overspent. To produce a better supply other springs were diverted to the head of the conduit, work paid for by a voluntary subscription and mostly completed in 1586–7. It included a well house at Boughton, where the flow was turned on at five every morning and again between four and five in the afternoon to fill the cistern. After describing the Tyrer waterworks by the Old Dee Bridge, Hemingway writes:


 * Possibly these did not answer their purpose effectually for in 1622 Tyrer had a new grant of a tower erected for a water work and a well place ten feet square near Spittle Boughton with full power for the conveyance of water to a cistern or conduit near the high cross. - see also ZCHD/1/13, 13 September 1622.



Few images of the cistern building prior to Lockwood's building, but there is a photograph from around 1860, and the cistern building sometimes edges into the works of Louise Rayner.

The present building has one bay towards Bridge Street, a canted corner with an octagonal tourelle and one bay towards Eastgate Street. There are seven stone steps to the Row at the corner under a round timber arch. The third storey bressumer has a patterned fascia; 3 rows of plaster panels, the lower with central decorative features and arched braces, the middle row with round-arched heads and the upper row with ornate quadrant braces. The corner turret has 3 good pargeted panels beneath a mullioned canted casement and its two-stage curved tourelle roof is capped with a wind-vane. This is said to be the best liked of Lockwood's buildings in Chester, and well executed in his most flamboyant style.



Numbers 3 to 7
Numbers 3-7 comprises three undercrofts with some medival asonry surviving at the rear and row shops above rebuilt 1889-90 in a Vernacular Revival style by WM Boden to replace the three bays seen in the old photograph above. The row front has brick end-piers, two intermediate supports (probably cast-iron) in square wooden cases with moulded capitals, a boarded sloped stallboard about 2m from front to back and a boarded Row walk. Shaped brackets support a tiled lean-to roof intersecting three canted five-light mullioned oriels with concave sub-panels and leaded glazing above their transoms. Four further large shaped brackets support the jettied fourth storey of which the projecting central bay has a four-light mock oriel. There are shallow three-light canted oriels in each side-bay, each under a gablet with a pair of curved braces. The undercrofts have 4, 5 and 4 steps down from street at numbers.3, 5 and 7 respectively. the interiors are lined. On September 16 1889, prior to sending drawings October 21 1889 to the City Council, the builder wrote:


 * "...The old premises were constructed of [timber] and plaster about 4in. thick and, as space is very valuable, I propose to build all the partitions of 4.1/2in. Ruabon pressed bricks and hoop iron bands, using freely cast-iron joists and girders resting on strong pillars. The front wall below timber framing 9 in. thick and all basement walls 9 in. When approved you can have copies for your use Yours very faithfully William M. Boden"

Number 9
Number 9 has a rendered brick facade of around 1840 which conceals a building which was a medieval undercroft below a town house substantially rebuilt c1700. Externally there are sandstone end piers continuous through undercroft and Row storeys. The row has a cast-iron railing to the Row front with ornate spear-heads, a cast-iron central column a boarded sloped stallboard a little over 2m deep, and flagged Row walk. Above that is rendered brick. In the undercroft most surfaces are lined, but some medieval stonework is visible in the rear wall, with a cloakroom having sandstone walls and a chamber on the routh side 4.33m deep being also of sandstone. At row level +1 there are 17thC chamfered cross-beams with lambs tongue stops and some fleur-de-lys plasterwork at the ceiling corners. An open-well closed-string oak stair to the fourth and fifth storeys appears of early date and the fifth storey has a painted oak door of 7 roughly-fielded panels, probably late C17, to the front room which has a stone fireplace and mantel. There are signs that this building was once jettied, but that the jetty was removed at some stage, possibly when the building was refaced in c1840.

Number 11


Number 11 Is another partially surviving 17thC timber framed building with a mediaval undercroft that has been re-fronted. The upper part of the facade was rebuilt as a replica in the 2othC. Outside there is a flight of ten sandstone steps to the Row, sandstone end piers through undercroft and Row storeys, a plain timber rail on simply moulded balusters to Row front and return to steps, two cast-iron intermediate columns, and a sloped boarded stallboard 2.0m deep. The front to the third and fourth storeys is rebuilt in C20 brick, but approximately in its C17-C18 form. Within, a 18thC brick cross-wall divides the front and back parts of the undercroft. The front part, now a small shop, has a central oak chamfered "samson post" 0.37m square, the chamfers stopped at top but not bottom, with a heavy oak pad carrying a beam 0.45m wide by 0.21m high, running from front to back. This Samson Post appears to have once been one of a pair. In the rear part of the undercroft, reached by C18 stone steps from the Row-level shop, the beam has been cut off, but the medieval sandstone side-walls, the patched rear wall with a corbel formerly carrying the beam and a timber sole-plate in the north wall, level with the former beam, are visible - and there is no Samson Post. The Row shop has an intact Edwardian hardwood interior - the best example of its period in Chester, with a stair to an arcaded gallery at third storey level, having tapered square posts, with entasis, round arches and triple keys. This gallery probably reflects the 17thC arrangement. There is a probably 17thC chamfered oak beam across shop and rear passage. The chamber above the Row has a C17 beam morticed for a former stud partition. The rear wing, east, 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 an exposed 17thC trenched-purlin roof truss.

Number 13
Number 13 was designed in 1861, in the Tudor Revival style by Edward Hodkinson, for Mr Ewen, a hosier. The heavy Row-front balustrade has a moulded timber rail on spiral-moulded balusters and half-octagon responds which carry a possibly reused C17 chamfered bressumer on quadrant brackets with mouchettes in spandrels and end-pendants. The upper storeys are painted stone-dressed brick, with a stone mullioned and transomed window on the third storey having a pediment above the lintel. There is a a stepped 3-light mullioned window to the fourth storey, which has a transom and upper light to the central portion only. A recessed stone panel is dated 1861. There is a moulded stone cornice to the front gable. Inside, there is no evidence of earlier fabric.

Number 15
Number 15 is another example of an 18thC brick facade concealing a 17thC timber framed structure. Outside there are eleven steps to Row by the south pier which is of sandstone. The north pier is covered. Cast-iron railings run across the row front and the return to the steps has circlets between paired upper rails. There is a slender moulded central cast-iron column with a second column behind. The stall-board is 1.7m deep and flat. There are 2 early to mid C14 double-chamfered bluntly-pointed cross arches of sandstone carrying medieval flat oak joists in the undercroft. Some 17thC plasterwork survives on the upper floors and the way that this has been truncated indicates that the building was originally jettied. The passage to the rear wing has a stone and brick stair, north, to a small cellar which is barrel-vaulted in brick and probably 18thC.

Numbers 17 and 19


Numbers 17 & 19 is a rendered brick building rebuilt late 18thC as undercroft shop, Row shop and accommodation. The cellar behind reached from the Row shop has medieval sandstone sidewalls. The now plain facade has been altered since it was originally constructed, having lost heavy cornices and brackets and a projecting pediment.

Number 21
Number 21 has an early 19thC brick facade. The undercroft ceiling and probably side-walls medieval, most likely 14thC, whereas the front and probably interior of upper storeys is from c1800. The narrow undercroft has a chamfered oak beam under back of the stallboard, stopped at the south end.



Number 23
Number 23 is an early 19thC brick building with cast-iron Roman Doric columns at row level, and a medieval undercroft.

Numbers 25-27
Numbers 25-27 has a front which dates from c1800, but inside only the undercroft is of that date the rest of the building having been altered in the 1930s for newspaper printing premises. office front to street. All four windows on the upper floors are different and include an inserted 5-light large-pane mullioned and transomed canted oriel. The undercroft, lowered and altered for newspaper press, has 2 cast-iron Roman Doric columns, timber beams and joists.



Number 29
Number 29 is a brick building from about 1800 with cast iron Doric columns at the row level. The site of any medieval undercroft is largely obliterated by a vast subterranean printing press room.

Numbers 31-35
St Micheal's Row is a large Vernacular Revival steel framed building of 1909-11 with a half-timbered facade designed by WT Lockwood, for the second Duke of Westminster. It replaces a similar scaled (but four bay) building of the mid-19thC by Edward Hodkinson, and incorporates the row level entrance to St Michael's Arcade. The Row shops flank a pilastered, segmental archway with "figurehead" corbels, one a female, the other a bearded male. The frontage takes the form of a symmetrical, "E-shaped", late Elizabethan house, jettied (slightly) at each storey. The almost level stallboards and the Row walk are paved in terrazzo. The shopfronts to each side of the arcade have recessed doors in basket arches with Art Nouveau carvings. Lockwood intended that this large and ambitious project should be wholly faced in faience; but his client, to whom the City Council's Improvement Committee expressed their pleasure and thanks, and gave in, insisting on the timber seen today.

Numbers 37-41


Numbers 37-41 are a Neo-Jacobean style building errected in 1864 for the second Marquis of Westminster and designed by Edward Hodkinson. Above the row level this is brown brick diapered in blue and stone-dressed. The central gable is slightly larger than those to each side, and all three gables are stone-dressed, with kneelers, rectangular side-projections, copings and a stumpy octagonal finial. The real interest is in the late 13th-early 14thC undercroft which would have originally have been some 4.2 meters high prior to a street-level floor being inserted in 1864.



Batenham (1827) writes:


 * "A few paces onward we arrive at the Feathers Inn the site of a Roman building of some importance. To the antiquary and connoisseur this place possesses great interest for here are preserved in a tolerably perfect state, the remains of one of their hypocausts and of a sweating bath much in use among the Romans as a surperlative luxury. As any description must fall short of givings correct idea of this curious contrivance we must recommend an inspection besides which our limits will not admit of a minute notice of every remarkable object otherwise we might fail in our ostensible purpose of pointing out where they are to be found."

Seacome writes (1828) of this:


 * "At the back of a smith's shop, in a cellar near the Plume of Feathers Inn, are the remains of a Roman Hypocaust, fifteen feet long and eight wide, with an adjoining chamber or praefurnium of the same dimensions. This Hypocaust is supported by twenty eight square pillars, two feet eight inches high, and one foot square at the top and bottom. Over these pillars are placed bricks eighteen inches square, and three inches thick, which support others two feet square, perforated with small holes about six inches asunder. Immediately over this uppermost layer of bricks, is a terrace floor composed of several layers of lime, pounded bricks, &c. in different proportion and degrees of fineness."

The west cellar wall contains Roman bath-house masonry and an opening through the north wall, towards the east end, leads down 8 steps, now concrete, to the undercroft formerly at rear of No.37 Street, with floor and lower walls of bedrock. Towards the north a rock-cut sump, probably medieval, fed with water, which has a timber rail on column-on-vase balusters, probably from 1864. A rebated medieval doorway, east, leads to remains of a Roman hypocaust, perhaps restored when found during redevelopment in 1864. There are 27 surviving square, waisted columns in a rectangular chamber formerly containing 4 rows of 8 columns. A large 4-course stone compound corbel and a smaller corbel visible to each side in the east wall, probably dating from about 1300.

Hughes writes (1858) as follows:


 * "Scarcely so far down as this last named lane and on the opposite side of Bridge Street is a new and handsome range of buildings erected in 1853 by Mr Alderman Royle On the higher side of these premises and adjoining the Feathers Hotel exist a Roman Hypocaust and Sweating Bath of surpassing interest and in a state almost as perfect as when first erected. The following recount of this ancient of days is the result of a recent personal visit to the bath. It consists of two rooms considerably below the present level of the street the first being fifteen feet long eight feet wide and about six and a half feet deep. The Hypocaust is of rectangular shape about the same size but except at the entrance not more than half as deep as the first chamber. It was originally supported by thirty two square pillars two and a half feet high and one foot in diameter at top and bottom twenty eight of these pillars still remain. Brick tiles eighteen inches square and three inches thick surmount these pillars and over these are placed tiles two feet square perforated here and there with small holes through which the heat ascended to the sweating chamber above. The sweating room or Sudatory was immediately over the Hypocaust and was fitted with seats for the bathers who soon found themselves in a hot perspiration. They were then scraped carefully with an instrument constructed for the purpose or else plunged into a cold water bath after which they were rubbed down with towels anointed with fresh oil and then repaired to the tiring room there they dressed themselves deposited their denarii for the attendants and then went their way having enjoyed a luxury which few but Romans had then learned to indulge in. As we have before stated the buildings above and around have been only recently rebuilt but Messrs Royle the proprietors with that antiquarian zeal and true public spirit which have ever distinguished them took especial precautions to preserve both from injury and molestation this curious relic of proud old Rome. Since the adjacent premises have been rebuilt the bath is much easier of access than it was before and visitors can now inspect these remains without any personal sacrifice either of cleanliness or comfort"

Across a rear court are some of the few surviving "courtyard tenement" buildings in Chester.

St Michael's Rectory (43)
St Michael's Rectory is a mid 17thC half-timbered building which was bequeathed in 1659 by Lettice Whitley to St Michael's Parish and used until 1907 when it was sold to a Mr Crawford, an antique dealer. Continuous oak corner-posts extend through the Row and third storeys and consoles on these corner-posts carry an ovolo bressumer. The small-framed third storey has a row of 5 ornamented panels which are absent in earlier photographs (see photographs above), and neither the three-light mullioned and transomed leaded casement on the row +1 floor nor the leaded 3-light casement above that seem original. In the Row and upper storeys 17thC features include the front wall, the former rear wall now forming an internal cross-wall, a fine but incomplete moulded plaster ceiling and the form of the galleried hall open to the roof.

Reordering of the interior, difficult to identify completely, was undertaken by Crawford shortly after 1907. The former rear wall to the third storey is now an interior wall with has a 6-light mullioned and transomed leaded casement. Beneath the casement three 19thC "carved" panels in the manner of late Middle Ages depicting scences of the crucifiction and deposition, probably brought in and inserted by Crawford shortly after 1907 (they may be plaster casts). The balustrade of the east cross-landing of the galleried hall carries three further stations of the Cross panels. The purlin roof is 17thC, but is much altered.

Numbers 45-47
Numbers 45-47 are a fine earlth 20thC butchers shop in a brick building (probably those built in 1853 by alderman Royle). The third storey has an altered inserted canted barge-pane timber oriel. No evidence of earlier fabric.

Number 49


Number 49 is a Vernacular Revival building by W M Boden, dated 1891 on the gable tie-beam and in a similar style to his 2-7 Upper Bridge Street. At street level there is a modern shopfront with a covered entry to Feathers Lane. The row walk is quarry tiled and includes a bridge over Feathers Lane. The row-top bressumer sits on shaped brackets. A hipped lean-to roof on ornate brackets projects beneath an entry-bay cross casement and intersects a six-light canted oriel on the main bay - this is similar to his design at numbers 2-7. The timber-framed fourth storey, flush over the entry, is boldly jettied on shaped brackets in the main bay, there is a row of ornate small panels across both bays, a 2-pane casement standing proud on brackets over the entry and a six-light square oriel on the main bay. A coved jetty supports the main-bay front gable which has a tie-beam (inscribed 1891), S-curved herringbone struts and moulded bargeboards. The 1891 interior has be largely removed with only a single late 19thC cornice surviving at undercroft level.

Numbers 51-53
numbers 51-53 have a "proto" Vernacular Revival frontage from 1858 by James Harrison, which encases a much altered 17thC timber frame building.

The third storey has a central 5-light canted oriel on a rendered corbel similarly detailed to that on No.40 Bridge Street & Row (qv); the lights have 2-pane sashes with cusped arches to heads; hipped oriel roof of slate. The timber framing is planted, with the edges of every component cusped; the centre rail to each side of the oriel has a saltire-braced panel beneath and above; the gable above the oriel has framing like an 8-spoked wheel. The ornate shaped bargeboards are each cusped and pierced with 2 pairs of mouchettes.

This building tallies with the reference to James Harrison's buildings in Bridge Street quoted from The Builder v.16 p.269, April 17 1858:


 * "A shop in Bridge Street Row is also to have timber work characteristic of Chester in the fourteenth century. Mr Harrison is architect of both buildings."

The 1858 building is one of the first half-timbered revival structures in Chester. At a meeting of the 31st December 1849 the Chester and North Wales Architectual, Archaeological and Historic Society was formed and when the minutes of this first meeting were written up an circulated they were accompanied by an anonymous article entitled "Street Architecture of Chester". The author of this piece laments the replacement of timber-framed houses "with curiously carved fantastical gables" with "miserable brick and and incongruous piles of heavy Athenian architecture". The unknown writer goes on to say:


 * "..that if Chester is to maintain its far famed celebrity as one of the 'wonder cities' of England, if the great European and Transatlantic continents are still to contribute their shoals of annual visitors to ill our hotels, and the not too plenteous coffers of our tradesmen, one course only is open to us. We must maintain our ancient landmarks, we must preserve inviolate our city's rare attractions, .. our quaint old Rows, unique and picturesque as they currently are, must not be idly sacrificed at Mammon's reckless shrine."

The first half-timebered revival building in The Rows was the 1852 premises of Mr Platt the chemist in Eastgate street. In 1857, Pensons 36-28 Eastgate Street followed. James Harrison, the first architectural correspondent of the Archaeological Society, also experimented with vernacular sources, with 40 Bridge Street and as here, directly across the street at 51-53.

Number 55


Number 55 is a Vernacular Revival building by Thomas Edwards built as a commercial art gallery for David Sherratt (and, as freeholder, the first Duke of Westminster) in 1889. Edwards was in practice at No.7, St Werburgh Street as Kelly and Edwards, having taken over James Harrisons practice up his death in 1866. The half-timbered facade has inscriptions, statuary and carved panels of biblical scenes after the manner of Bishop Lloyd's House. The building appears to have 4 storeys, wheras in fact it only has three, expressed as four. Nine sandstone steps to the lead from the street to the Row. The undercroft has a modern shopfront between fluted pilasters with carved foliar bases. There are four large-scantling bridging joists in the undercroft shop and the lower part of the side walls are probably 18thC. Row and street numbers have drifted so far apart by now that the address of the Row level above number 55 would have been: "D. Sherratt & Co, 61 Bridge Street Row, Chester".



The front of the Row and upper storeys is "richly" ornamented. In fact it appears that just about everything is tried to make the property look like something that might be thought original, and the overall effect is to fail miserably. There is a heavy timber rail to Row front and return on moulded rectangular balusters. The sandstone upper parts of the end-piers have griffin capitals. Two intermediate posts have linenfold reeding. The sloped boarded stallboard is 2.23m deep. The row-top bressumer is mounted on ornate brackets; the central pair of brackets form an arch inscribed "SHERRATT & CO" in raised capitals - perhaps a big clue to Sherrat's potential customers that in the art world things are not always as they appear. The third storey is expressed externally as two storeys (clever trickery). The slightly jettied sole-plate to the "third" storey is inscribed "TO GOD MY KING AND COUNTRY" (yes, Queen Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was still very much alive in 1889) and is also carved with an assortment of reptiles. How any reference to the king can have survived the Civil War and the wrecking expedition of the Parliamentarians after the fall of Chester is hard to see.

The eight arched panels above contain "biblical" reliefs inscribed:
 * And departed into Egypt: - the flight into Egypt is a well known part of the Biblical story, and it is one very frequently depicted in works of art. However this brief verse is the only information the canon scriptures give to this voyage. Most of the traditions about this voyage come from the New Testament Apocrypha.




 * In whom I am well pleased: Matthew 3:17 again often painted ... but the Greek gets a bit odd and leads to all sorts of arguments.
 * SUZANNA and the ELDERS: In case you never heard of this: it is included in the Book of Daniel (as chapter 13) by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. It is one of the additions to Daniel, considered apocryphal by Protestants. It is listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England among the books which are included in the Bible but not for the formation of doctrine. This chapter is based on a series of Greek language puns, which tend to indicate it was originally written in Greek. It is one of the biblical scenes that was mostly painted because it involved a lot of bare flesh. One example is "Susanna and the Elders" by Gentileschi
 * Joseph and his Mistress: Most paintings of this scene also involve a lot of bare flesh (as in "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife" by Gentileschi.
 * I call for my friends: - does not even seem to be a biblical quote, and the image, while difficult to make out seems to be a half dressed woman doing something with a devil outside a building with a sign having crossed-keys (a symbol of the pope) while a man watches from a window.
 * Cain and Abel;
 * Jeremiah: - in the stocks
 * Praise him on the harpe - Psalm 33 (or 150)

There seems to be no sense to this particular choice of biblical symbolism, except perhaps that many, if not all, of the subjects had also been the subject of paintings.

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 king's figure is noticeably out of proportion with the legs being too short. It is believed that the figure was originally made taller, but that some shortening of the legs was required to make it fit the niche. Again, if someone is trying to convince people that this is an original Tudor property then it is again hard to see how the Parliamentarians would have missed a statue of King Charles (and how he manages miraculously to appear in a building supposed to have been constructed long before he was born).



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" - as if it always had been. Above this the five-light mullioned and transomed casement has pictorial leaded glazing - except the glazing clearly comes from windows of a different shape!

A large 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 - except that on the south corner-post is gone. The framing to the gable, thinner than that below, has square panels with quadrant braces. The gable has carved bargeboards and a shaped finial.

The extent to which the 1889 design of the interior of the Row and third storey remains visible is unusual, for Chester. The Row + 1 storey forms 2 chambers of the former gallery, linked through a depressed plastered archway.

Possible explanations for the buildings "exuberant" decoration range from:
 * The architect/owner were trying to pass this off as an ancient building and failed, somewhat obviously;
 * It is a clever "mockery" of the rest of mock-tudor Chester;

Modern day auction records show that D. Sherratt & Co. was a seller of fine art (including furniture) that frequently turns up with a sellers plate bearing their name and address. Just why they should end up with a "mockery Tudor" facade remains unknown.


 * Number 55 on Pastscape.



Number 57
Number 57 is a brick built structure of the early 19thC incorporating some fragments of a 17thC timber frame building. The undercroft shop has surfaces covered and the cross-beams are boxed, but from the back a sandstone passage leads to a medieval rear undercroft 3.7m wide and 3.47m front to back, the west wall is the former rear wall of the medieval front undercroft, with masonry visible south of the doorway; a cupboard recess in the west wall. A roughly chamfered oak beam against the north wall is probably 17thC. The Row shop is lined, but with a doorway to the south passage which has a stop-chamfered cross-beam and other indications of 17thC timber framing. Some wattle is displayed on an upper floor

Number 59
Number 59 is a 17thC building, incorporating earlier fabric, with 18thC alterations and was re-fronted in the 1950's in an attempt to replicate the elevation recorded by Batenham in 1816.

Number 61


Number 61 dates, from the Row up from c1760. The front part of the undercroft, 3 steps down from the pavement, is lined, with no features visible; the back part is paired, with the south chamber under a 18thC brick barrel-vault, now plastered. Observations during refurbishment in July 1988 revealed medieval stone walls with a doorway and fair east face to the present back wall, suggesting a similar rear undercroft chamber to that in No.57. The Row storey has some reused C17 oak beams.

Number 63
Number 61 dates from c1760, with some alterations 20thC. The undercroft is lined, but has 18thC cross-beams and was observed during refurbishment to have a presumably medieval sandstone south wall, adjacent to St Michael's Church.

St Michael's Church


St Michael's Church is decribed by Batenham as follows:


 * "About a hundred yards lower at the corner of Pepper street is St Michael's Church, the porch of which is much admired for its architectural symmetry the interior is neat and convenient and boasts a handsome roof in the antique style. There are two small galleries added but the injudicious and unwholsome practice of interment in the church has undermined their supporters so as to render their security rather doubtful. The well proportioned tower steeple of this church is about seventy feet high and contains six bells. Exactly opposite to this stands St Bridget's Church of very early date being supposed to have been founded by 0ffa the Saxon prince in the eighth century. It has recently been suggested to remove this church to a more eligible situation as its present projection is a great inconvenience besides being unsightly. In this event a new street would be opened in a line with the castle gates and thus form a direct approach to that imposing structure. Included in this plan it is proposed to rebuild the church on the place called Gloverstone where there would also be a spacious burying ground. In addition to this it is in contemplation that a new bridge should succeed the above improvements which might alone be a sufficient inducement to carry them into execution. The angular direction of the street would certainly destroy the uniformity of the ground plan of the city but it is hoped that the advantages would more than counterbalance this objection." (In conformity with this plan an Act of Parliament was obtained which received the royal assent on the 10th of June 1825 according to which the New Bridge must be completed within the term of seven years from that date)

The former parish Church of St Michael, now the Heritage Centre comprises elements from the 14thC, 1496, 1678 and 1849-50 when the stonework was largely replaced by James Harrison. The Building was stripped of furnishings 1972-5 (after which it was used as a heritage centre). The south end of the Bridge Street Row passes through the open first stage of the tower, also serving as the west porch, with stone steps up to the main Row north and down to the pavement, south. The interior has a C15 north arcade with octagonal piers, and a chancel roof of 1496, which is narrower than the present building which was widened in 1678, and a monument to Roger Comberbach, 1771 by Benjamin Bromfield (a sculptor, designer and manufacturer of marble fireplaces which he supplied to stately homes including Chirk Castle in Denbighshire).

Lower Bridge Street West (Grosvenor Street to Castle Street)


Seacome noted the absence of the Rows in Lower Bridge Street:


 * The Rows in Upper Bridge street are still entire and continuous but in Lower Bridge street they have been discontinued in the more modern and built up and appropriated in many of the ancient buildings so that there only remains a small portion of the How on the east side towards the foot of this street and that in a state of dilapidation which renders its shelter more perilous than pleasant to the passenger.

Lower Bridge Street starts at number 6, so there is clearly something missing! The missing buildings include St Bridget's Church and Lamb Row. St Bridget's church stood at the angle of Whitefriars and Bridge Street until 1829 when it was removed during the construction of the Grosvenor Bridge and Road. A replacement church was built to the west of the new Castle Esplanade.



Batenham writes of Lamb Row as follows:


 * In a former edition of this work mention was made of a singular old house on this spot called the Lamb Row and an intimation given of its dangerous condition which was verified by its falling soon after and fortunately without any person being injured although it fell in the middle of the day and without giving the least warning.

Hughes appreciates the comedy value:


 * Just behind where we have been standing is a curious relic of the timber architecture of Chester the Falcon Inn A few yards higher up than the Falcon the street was for nearly two centuries blocked up by a strange looking timber building erected by Randle Holme in 1655 called the Old Lamb Bow While this house was in being it was the greatest curiosity of its kind in the city but in 1821 the decaying timbers suddenly parted from their bearings and the entire pile fell in with a great crash to the unspeakable relief of the pent up thoroughfare but to the great chagrin and regret of the antiquary.

The most detailed account of Lamb Row comes from The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, Volume 94, Part 2 (1824) in which is written:


 * We are now arrived to the period of its fall which happened in 1821. It took place in the afternoon the projecting portion at the South end where the four quatrefoils are seen in the engraving suddenly gave way and tumbled into the street with a loud crash. An immense volume of dust rose from the ruins and it was some time before the bystanders could ascertain what damage was done. Happily no injury was sustained by the inhabitants. An old woman named Sarah Adams was sitting in the upper room at the moment the over hanging roof bore down the trembling building beneath the wall, if such it may be called, of the apartment separated within six inches of a chair on which she was seated and she fortunately escaped, had she removed that distance further she would inevitably have been precipitated into the street. Although the Lamb row projected so fearfully it was thought by some able builders to be perfectly safe and likely to remain a century to come .One of its late proprietors was decidedly of this opinion and answered all observations on its insecurity by saying "it will last longer than thou wilt". A short time proved his remark ill founded.

Lambs Row was replaced by the building extensively documented on the Chesterwalls.info pages.

Number 6 (The Falcon)


Number 6 Lower Bridge Street is the surviving half of a still more spectacular 13th Century town house which originally extended further down Lower Bridge Street. The timbers from the former east span of the roof, now reused in the cellar ceiling, date from c1180. The building was altered in the later Middle Ages, the 16thC, in 1626 and in the 19th and 20thC.



The building is constructed in two storeys with a timber frame with plaster panels, including some wattle and daub, on a sandstone plinth. The front to Lower Bridge Street has an undercroft of coursed red sandstone, mostly now rendered; the storey above containing the now enclosed Row, has close studding with a wide eleven-light leaded windows having moulded oak beam and ovolo mullions and transoms. A flight of nine renewed steps to south from pavement to former Row give access to the bar. The section of the building facing Lower Bridge Street was once a section of Row, which extended further down the Street, but this was enclosed in 1643 following a successful petition to the assembly by Sir Richard Grosvenor. It was the first such enclosure of The Rows. His petition gave the following reason why the row was an annoyance to himself and his neighbours:


 * "..by reason of the moistinesse thereof.."

He also argued that his employment with the garrison of Chester:


 * "..tyeth him to inhabit in his said house which is far to little to recieve his familie"

Grosvenor could hardly be refused: he was a leading member of the local gentry, an MP, member of the Assembly and a leading Royalist responsible for the protection of Chester. Although no further enclosure of the Rows took place for 25 years, Grosvenor's enclosure of the row started a trend which was to transform Lower Bridge Street. In the late 18thC the building ceased to be the town house of the Grosvenor family. It continued to be owned by them, and between 1778 and 1878 it was licensed as The Falcon Inn.

A dragon-beam on shaped bracket at north-east corner and square oak beams carrying jetty-bressumer with carved fascia support the second main storey, which has a row of 12 quatrefoil panels, sloped slightly outward, beneath a continuous 34-light leaded window, returned with a further 6 lights to north face. The window has hollow-chamfered mullions and transom, moulded corner-post, head-beam jointed at centre and is sloped outward. A pair of gables on 3 shaped brackets have moulded ties, herringbone struts, replaced moulded bargeboards and shaped finials. The timber frame is late 16thC, restored by John Douglas c1879, who removed the the 18thC sash windows and installed the mullions. At this time it was known as The Falcon Cocoa House - a temperance house. In 1886 Grayson and Ould (who are partly responsible for the design of Port Sunlight) carried out a "restoration".



The face to Grosvenor Street has a higher and older east portion and a lower 2-storey west wing, probably 1626 for Sir Richard Grosvenor.

Inside, the two (of possibly four) 13thC stone pillars forming the front of the former Row and the shop front at the rear of the Row, are still visible in the front Bar. The medieval undercroft is now the beer cellar, and has a 2-bay north chamber with a parallel one-bay south chamber, formerly a single 3-bay undercroft. The north cellar has a massive oak central east-west beam on 3 samson posts with arched braces, one removed, on sandstone bases. The south cellar has an opening with depressed arch of 2 stones to a recess with the remains of a spiral stair in west wall, a cupboard recess in south wall, stone corbels and repositioned medieval joists. The main timbers in the cellars dated c1180 are reused, from a former scissor-braced truss over the east portion of the early medieval town house.

In a series of 50 cigarette cards, "Celebrated Old Inns", issued in 1925, Hignett's Cigarettes had The "Falcon" Chester as number 15. The Bear and Billet, further down the same street came in at number three. . By the 1970s the building had become virtually derelict. In 1979 the Falcon Trust was established, and the building was donated to the trust by the Grosvenor Estate. Between 1979 and 1982 the building was restored by Donald Insall Associates.



Numbers 8-10
Numbers 8 and 10 are a small shop dating from 1886, by E A Ould on the site of small shop and small cottage shown in the earlier drawings paintings of the Falcon. The shopfront has small-pane recessed central door under timber Tudor arch, with Tudor-arched shop window to each side. Brick end-piers with stone and brick corbels to jetty. The second storey has small-framing with herringbone braces; two 6-light mullioned and leaded casements; 2 front gables, their roofs lying against the main roof, have small framing with a row of quadrant-braced panels and, above, herringbone bracing. Internally, the second storey shows the former Row walk archway of sandstone from The Falcoln Inn. Committee Minutes: Chester City Council: 4/6/1886 describe this as "the property lying between the Falcoln Cocoa House and White Bear Inn".



Number 12
A modern brick building, with no interesting features (this is not a listed building). However, unlike some of the other modern buildings it does not look out of place. This building is on the site of the "White Bear". Batenhams illustration of c1816 shows that the building at that time had the row-high porch and steps to the row level which typically indicate an enclosed row.

Number 14
Number 14 is a four storey, one-bay town house. The present structure dates from the 18thC, but has medieval origins and is built on the same narrow plot. The undercroft, 4 steps down, has surfaces of front bay covered and modern metal spiral stair inserted. Further back, the medieval sidewalls of coursed red sandstone rubble are exposed as are 3 oak cross-beams, 2 chamfered. The second storey has some old cross-beams, probably re-positioned.



Numbers 16-24 (Bridge House)
Bridge House was built in 1676, altered 1678 for Lady Mary Calveley, occupied early 18thC by John Williams, Attorney General of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire from 1702 and Cheshire and Flintshire in 1727. Lady Mary, the oldest surviving daughter of Henry Duke of Beaufort was married in 1685 to James Duke of Ormonde and died in Nov 1733. Mary Calveley had petitioned the City Assembly for permission to demolish her existing house, which contained a section of the Chester Rows, and replace it with a well-proportioned Baroque Neo-classical mansion. The petition read that she wished:




 * " ..to take down the fore part of her house in the Bridge Street by her lately purchased .. and to rebuild the same Roe as may bee a grace and ornament to the citty"

This was granted, but as it led to the loss of a portion of the Rows she was fined £20 (£2,900 as of 2014). Two years later a second petition was submitted for a pair of stairs out in the street, for which an additional fine of 40 shillings was required together with an annual rent of 5 shillings.

The rear best displays the character of a substantial late 17thC town house. Seen from the front, the house is set back from the street frontage, but an Edwardian extension now breaks forward at ground level in the place of a pair of curved steps. A central window now replaces the original doorway.



The O.S. 1:500 plan surveyed in 1872 shows the present sixth bay, but also the external stairs and no projecting shops. At that time, the demand for secondary education in Chester was still largely being satisfied by private schools: in 1871 there were at least 40 private schools in Chester, 30 of them for girls. Several of the larger and longer established boys' schools in the 1870s occupied such notable buildings as the old Albion Hotel and Bridge House ("Bridge House School", run by a Mrs Keats and known for its gardens at the rear) in Lower Bridge Street, 'Derby House' (Stanley Palace) in Watergate Street, and Forest House in Foregate Street, though Gamul House had closed as a boarding school in the 1860s. Following occupation as a school, the building became the "Oddfellows Lodge and Club".

Later still, the building was the booking office for the "Crossville" transport company which was formed as Crosville Motor Company Limited on 27 October 1906 in Chester, by George Crosland Taylor and his French business associate Georges de Ville, with the intention of building motor cars. The company name was an amalgam of 'Crosland' and 'de Ville'. In 1909 Crosville had commenced its first bus service, between Chester and Ellesmere Port. By 1929 Crosville had consolidated an operating area covering the Wirral and parts of Lancashire, Cheshire and Flintshire.


 * Oddfellow's Hall on Wikipedia;
 * More on Crossville;

Numbers 24-42
Numbers 26-42 are a group of houses dating from 1982-83 with some of the facades being facsimiles of the 18thC houses which stood on the site. As can be seen from the photograph taken just prior to redevelopment this part of Lower Bridge Street was very run down by the early 1980's, with many buildings on both sides of the street derelict.

Number 44
Number 44 has a 17thC or earlier core and front probably 1717, when the Row was enclosed following a petition by Thomas Hunt. Old stone end-piers, the north one rendered, rise through first and second storeys, which were formerly the undercroft and Row. Ceiling beams in the former Row level contain mortices for partitions, representing the line of the Row and the shop unit behind.



Number 46
Number 46 has thirteen repaired steps leading to the former Row level in a tall round-arched recessed porch. There is no evidence of earlier fabric.

Number48-50 (The Old Kings Head)


The Old Kings Head or ("Ye Olde Kynges Head") is first mentioned in 1208 in written records which refer to a stone-built house belonging to Peter the Clerk (an administrator at Chester Castle). The cellars behind the range facing Lower Bridge Street contain medieval stone walls, probably a survival from Peter the Clerk's "domus lapidus", but are much altered later. They form an irregular group of small rooms, but appear always to have been sub-divided, unlike other Chester undercrofts, which tended to one large space. The house was rebuilt from the former Row level upward and refronted probably in part 15thC, 16thC and early 17thC for Randle Holme I, first of four generations of heralds and armorial painters. The building was first licensed as a pub in 1717.

The structure of the Old Kings Head is unique in Chester, and the original hall was quite unlike that of later buildings as it lay behind rather than above the row and therefore had no windows to the main street. The the Castle Street elevation of the rear wing is the oldest surviving part of the building and can be dated to the late medieval prior to the period of intense rebuilding of 1550-1640. The sill-bean is of two pieces joined by a simple through-splayed scarf joint, and some studs have been removed for the insertion of later windows. One remarkable example of the re-use of former woodwork in moderisation is found in the arcade post which has been laboriously re-carved into a Tuscan column.



The premises were heavily renovated in 1935 and during this refurbishment a sword was found hidden under the floorboards of bedroom number 4. The said sword can now be found hanging proudly on the wall of the bar.

Ghosts

 * A phantom child is said to roam the pub, especially bedroom No. 4. A phantom figure has been seen wandering aimlessly about. The pub was renovated in the 1930's, and under the floorboards of bedroom number 4, a sword was found. It can be seen hanging on the wall today - is there a connection between the ghost and the sword? Mysterious messages have been said to appear on a mirror in bedroom No. 4.




 * On New Years Eve 1982 a lady was delivering a car to a car dealer in Chester. She booked into room number 6 for the night There are 2 ways of reaching room number 6, and old and peculiar little stairway or a longer route by the modern and wider staircase. At 2am the lady awoke with an intense feeling that something was not quite right. She heard a clock strike 2, and felt a sensation of great cold, coupled with a feeling of her hair standing on end. She turned round and saw a man dressed in black silently watching her. She was quite indignant and puzzled, and wondered how a stranger had managed to enter a locked bedroom. She challenged the man, who simply carried on gazing at her. She wasn't alarmed, but rather felt a sensation of peace and tranquility. The apparition remained for about 15 minutes then vanished. The lady was so impressed with the soothing and comforting atmosphere that she booked to stay another night. Items have also been said to mysteriously disappear in bedroom No. 6.

A landlady has professed to be being very reluctant to use the small staircase adjacent to rooms 4,5 and 6, rather using the more modern staircase.


 * Ye Olde Kings Head at their own website;
 * Old Kings Head on Wikipedia;

Numbers 1 and 3 Castle Street
1 and 3 Castle Street are one or possibly two town houses dating from the mid 18thC. The east face to Lower Bridge Street has eight steps down, parallel with front, to former undercroft with lantern arch and replaced rail. The undercroft has a brick barrel vault of 18thC type. No evidence exists for a former Row.

Gamul House, Numbers 52-58


Gamul House has an undercroft (large longitudinal oak beam with reset joists, some replaced) at street level and service wing of two storeys. Three small one-storey shops, probably 18thC, but altered, are built against the southern bays of the undercroft and have brick barrel vaults of an 18thC type. Above and behind this is a stone built great hall of two-storey height at former Row level. An external stair parallel with the front has 15 stone steps leading to an access gallery in place of former Row to Gamul House and properties south of it. Parts of the present building date from around the early 16thC, with the oldest visible parts being the wall and fireplace behind the present bar. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666 and a Chester Assembly ruling on building in 1671, the medieval frontage of Gamul House was replaced by a brick façade.

Batenham describes the building as follows:




 * "an old house which formerly belonged to the Gamul family celebrated as having given protection to that unfortunate monarch Charles 1 during the time the city was besieged by the parliamentary forces The interior is well worthy the inspection of the curious for its interesting old painted panel work and its beautiful carving A Baptist association now occupy part of the house as a place of worship."

Hughes writes:


 * "up a flight of steps is a large tenement of late years known as the Boarding School Yard This was in the seventeenth century the mansion house of the Gamulls a worthy Cheshire family; and here on September 27 1645 Sir Francis Gamull Mayor of Chester in 1634 lodged and entertained Charles I on his Majesty's visit to Chester during the great Civil War The house is now divided into tenements but several of the rooms still retain evidence of their original splendour."

Thomas Gamul was the city’s recorder and was the son of Edward Gamul, who was the mayor of Chester on four occasions. At the time of the Civil War the house was the home of Sir Francis Gamul, the son of Thomas, a Royalist supporter and colonel of the Town Guard. Charles I stayed in the house on 23–24 September 1645, when his army was defeated at the Battle of Rowton Moor. Gamul and other Royalists were dismissed from the town's administration in October 1646, and he was fined £940. Gamul died at the age of 48. Gamul had married Christian Grosvenor daughter of Sir Richard Grosvenor (1st Baronet) in 1621. They had two daughters, and his baronetcy therefore became extinct on his death.


 * Gamul House on Wikipedia;

60-68 and 2-6 Gamul Terrace
Numbers 60-68 are five lock-up shops and five cottages, built in 1872 by T Fluitt on the site of "Boarding School Yard". The shops project beneath the access gallery to the cottages, which is probably on the line of a former Row. A covered stepped access between shops numbered 60 and 62 leads up to Gamul Place, a courtyard development of eleven cottages built at the smae time. The whole was restored by Chester City Council in the mid 1970s. Gamul place is the only surviving example of occupied courtyard housing in the city center.

Numbers 70-74
Numbers 70-74 are two late 18thC, four storey, brick town houses. The stair in a tall recessed porch to No.70a, north of No.70 and to No.72 south of No.74 suggest enclosure of the former Row.

Numbers 76
Number 76 is listed, but has no features of interest for the curious passer-by.

Number 78-82
Richard House has a facsimile facade of the previous building on the site, which conceals a modern steel framed building of 1983. The warehouse and town houses originally built here in the mid to later 18thC had a full height loading bay at the north end and an L-shaped stone stair of 5 and 4 steps to the south. The former loading bay is weather-boarded and has a casement to each storey, which were each formerly a loading-door.

Shipgate House


Shipgate House forms offices together as 2-4 Shipgate street. Number 2 is a late 17thC house, refronted in the mide 18thC in brick with stone dressings and an external staircase. The interior retains many late 17thC features in the forms of walls and floors and an open-well oak staircase. Number 4 Shipgate street is a mid 18thC two-storey house. Both properties have a semi-basement.

Lower Bridge Street West (Shipgate Street to Bridgegate)




Old Edgar
the "Old Edgar" has been described in "The Old Inns Of England" (1906) thus:


 * Until quite recently the “King Edgar” inn was the most picturesquely tumble-down building in Chester, a perfect marvel of dilapidation that no artist could exaggerate, or any one, for that matter, care to house in. But it has now not only been made habitable, but so “restored” that only the outlines of the building, and that faded old sign, remain recognisably the “King Edgar.” It is now rather a smart little inn, displaying notices of “Accomodation for Cyclists”—spelled with one “m” — and thus, so renovated and youthful-looking, as incongruously indecent as one’s grandmother would be, were she to let her hair down and take to short frocks again.



This 14th or 15thC building occupies an important corner site, and may have originally been two buildings, before being converted into an inn. The jetty-bressumer to each front carries round-ended joists with sole-plate above, with brackets north and south and a repaired heavy gently-curving north-east corner bracket formerly rising from pavement to jetty.


 * Ye Olde Edgar on Wikipedia;

Numbers 90-92
Number 92-93 has a brick facade of the early 19thC which conceals a timber framed building of somewhat unusual design and probably 15thC origin or earlier. Batenham shows a pair of front gables, but since the early 19thC these have been concealed by a tall parapet. Originally a timber-framed buiilding of two storey height, this was increased to three storeys and apparently largely cased in brick with four cross-casements to the front in the 17thC. Inside the original structure of the ground floor is largely obliterated by later alterations. However, the front room has a chamfered cross-beam, perhaps reused and altered, posts in side-walls and studded south wall. It aslso has the lower part of a massive 2-storey post c300mm x 300mm belling out to nearly 450mm x 450mm at its crown, suggesting a former 2-bay great hall. The second storey has a good full-width front room with small oak panelling to rear wall and matching doors, sub-panels to embrasures and 4-panel ceiling with ornamental early 17thC plasterwork on the 2 side-beams and the rear frieze and cornice.