Dee House
(work in progress}
Dee House is a Grade II Listed Building, which is owned by Cheshire West and Chester Council. At the time of writing (2024) it is in a ruinous state and has been the subject of considerable debate as regards the future use of the site. Views on it are polarised: some believe that it should be demolished to allow investigation and exposure of further parts of the Amphitheatre, while others hold that it should be preserved. There is little to add to what has been written elsewhere (see Sources and Links), so this page exists to provide links to other sources and some brief comments.
History
The origins of Dee House have been the subject of much discussion. Local historian Tom Walsh (see links below) appears to be at odds with the views of Historic England. What is generally agreed is that there was a development of mansion building in Georgian Chester along the River Dee upstream of the city and along the eastern part of the Groves.
Dee House was supposedly built in about 1730 as a town house for John Comberbach, a former mayor of Chester, although there is some debate about who it was actually built for and exactly when. Extensions were made in the 1740s to the south and southwest, giving the house an L-shaped plan. It continued in use as a private residence until about 1850, when it was sold to the Church of England. In 1854 it passed to the Faithful Companions of Jesus, a religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church, who used it as a convent school. They added a wing to the east, which incorporated in its ground floor a chapel designed by Edmund Kirby. The chapel is in Gothic Revival style, in contrast to the rest of the building which is in a Georgian style. A west wing in Neo-Georgian style was added in about 1900 again by Kirby. In 1925 the building was taken over by the Ursulines, another religious institute. Dee House was later acquired by Post Office Telecoms (later British Telecom) and converted into a telephone exchange with offices and training facilities. In 1993 it was sold to Chester City Council. It has been vacant since this time.
The Issue
The early history of the debate is summed-up by Piloti the "architectural reporter" of the satirical magazine "Private Eye" from January 1987:
- "Good ideas never die. What Mussolini did for Rome in the 1930s- sweeping away untidy old medieval and baroque buildings to expose ancient Roman monuments- the good councillors of Chester hope to do in the 1980s. Mussolini, of course, replanned Rome for the benefit of cars, and a misguided reverence for Imperial remains at the expense of later buildings, and to his own greater glory. In Chester it is slightly different: cars are still worshipped- ringroads and relief roads are everywhere- and it is important that the Grosvenor Estate is allowed to develop shopping centres behind every black-and-white facade; but the over-riding aim is the encouragement of yet more tourism.That is what brings in the money. The case in point is Dee House, in Little St. John Street, a handsome Georgian building which is listed. Messrs Deva Roman Centre Ltd propose to demolish it to allow the excavation of a Roman amphitheatre underneath. In other words, a listed building of quality is to give way to an ancient monument of dubious archaeological and no aesthetic value. Mussolini would have understood. Here is that English attitude to architecture, that reverence to antiquity rather than beauty, which John Betjamen called "Antiquarian Prejudice" and Robert Byron ridiculed because, "by these standards, a bit of old Roman wall is of more importance than Nash's Regent Street, and one ruined arch than all Wren's churches put together". In fact, to expose the first half of the amphitheatre, one handsome Victorian Italianate building, St. John's House, has already gone. Then the site remained derelict until the city of Chester put pressure on the DoE to do something, so the Roman remains were 'restored' by carting away old dressed stone and replacing it with new. This is what is really scandalous. There is no reason to pull down Dee House on archaeological grounds as one half of an amphitheatre is just like the other. The real reason is commercial: It is proposed to reconstruct the original amphitheatre, to make a piece of conjectural bogus, 'instant history' which will make the Victorian 'restoration' of cathedrals seem a model of scholarship and tact. And, in this new amphitheatre, tourists will be able to enjoy a 'Roman experience' and dine in a Roman restaurant. Perhaps Lord Montagu and English Heritage can help by staging the throwing of Christians to the lions- beginning, I suggest, with the Dean and Chapter of Chester. Soon genteel, smug, picturesque Chester will be nothing but a huge Disneyland surrounded by roads and car parks, a stage set for the tourist and leisure industries. Give me Liverpool any day."
Sources and Links
Related Pages
- St John Street;
- Souters Lane;
- Amphitheatre;
- Peploe;
- The Groves;
- Edmund Kirby: the architect of the chapel;
Online
- Dee House on Virtual Stroll;
- Article on Dee House: by Tom Walsh;
- Dee House on Wikipedia;
- Historic England: well out of date in 2024;
- 2016 Report by English Heritage;
- Chester Growth Partnership on Dee House;
- Inside Dee House;
