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.

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. 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.



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.



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.



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 "Shuttleworths") has a flight of 10 repaired steps to the Row and the rear wall of the Row has 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 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 a 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.

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;