Listed Building: 15, FOREGATE STREET (1375798)

CHESTER CITY (EM) SJ4066 FOREGATE STREET 1932-1/6/112 (North side) 27/10/89 No.15 GV II Bank. 1921. By Francis Jones. For the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank Ltd. Extended 1964 by Saxon Smith and Partners and now occupied by the Royal Bank of Scotland. Steel frame clad in sandstone and timber frame with plaster panels; Westmorland green slate roof. An accomplished late example of the Vernacular Revival. EXTERIOR: the one-bay south front to Foregate Street and the south bay of the 5-bay east front to Frodsham Street containing a lobby to the banking hall with offices above are of 3 storeys plus an attic; the east front to the tall banking hall has one full storey of offices and an attic above. The timber frame is jettied at floor and sill levels of the second storey of the south bay and at sill level of the third storey of all bays; all gables have coved jetties; the principal posts, bressumers, tie-beams, bargeboards, mullions and transom are carved or moulded. The front to Foregate Street has a first storey of rock-faced squared snecked red sandstone with a nailed boarded oak door of 3 leaves, east, and 2 fixed oak mullioned and transomed windows of 4 lights; the upper storeys are timber-framed; the second storey has a row of 12 arched panels beneath continuous leaded glazing comprising 3 mullioned and transomed casements of 4 lights; the third storey has fenestration similar to the second storey above a row of 12 panels with quadrant braces; the gabled attic has a shallow canted oriel of 5 lights with a jetty above and small framing; bargeboards; rainwater head west of gable dated 1921; ornate rainwater head, east. The front to Frodsham Street has a plinth of rock-faced squared snecked sandstone rubble, an entrance-and-stair bay of sandstone ashlar with 2 timber-framed gabled bays to south, and one to the north with a sandstone ashlar extension beyond dated 1964. The southernmost bay has two 3-light mullioned and transomed windows, separated by a principal post, to the first storey; 5-light mullioned and transomed canted oriels to second and third storeys and 5-light casement to attic; other features similar to those on front to Foregate Street; the rainwater head north of the gable is dated 1921. The bay to each side of the entrance has a tall window of 4 pairs of lights with 2 transoms, with a column of 7 quadrant-braced panels to each side; the second storey of each bay has mullioned and transomed casements of 2;4;2 lights above a row of 10 quadrant-braced panels; each gable has a 4-light mullioned and transomed casement in small framing. The entrance-and-stair bay has a nailed boarded doorway in a recessed Tudor arch with a tall recessed stair window above with mullion and 2 transoms; the roof descends to eaves between the adjacent gables; the rainwater head south of the stair is dated 1921. The added northernmost bay of 4 storeys, labelled Bank Chambers, has boarded double doors in a Tudor arch opening and a 3-light mullioned window with a recessed panel beneath upper storey; moulded string course raised above the uppermost window; parapet with moulded cap; 2 rainwater heads dated 1964. The rear is of brick with no visible features of special interest. INTERIOR: the lobby from Foregate Street has double inner doors of oak with leaded glazing; the entrance from Frodsham Street is blocked. The banking hall altered in 1964 and 1984, has panelling, a west gallery with rail on turned balusters and a ceiling with oak-cased primary and secondary beams and plaster panels. (Chester City Council and Committee: Improvement Committee Minutes: 1920-1921). Listing NGR: SJ4075466385