Listed Building: NUMBER 9 AND ATTACHED WALLS (1376027)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066NW ABBEY SQUARE 595-1/1/11 (North side) 28/07/55 No.9 and attached walls (Formerly Listed as: ABBEY SQUARE (North side) Nos.7-11 (Consecutive)) GV II* Town house now offices. 1754-60. For Thomas Prescott on a 40-year lease from the Dean and Chapter of Chester Cathedral. Flemish bond orange brick; grey slate roof. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellar; double-fronted. Painted stone plinth and rusticated quoins. A boot-scraper by 4 apron steps of stone to door of 6 fielded panels with overlight having radial and looped elliptical bars in painted stone case with fluted Ionic pilasters and pulvinated frieze and modillion cornice to pediment. 2 recessed 12-pane sashes to each side of the door, 5 similar sashes to the second storey and 5 of 6 panes in square openings to the third storey; all have painted stone moulded sills and rusticated wedge lintels with ornate false keystones. Painted stone cornice beneath brick parapet with panelled end-blocks and plain coping of stone; no external rainwater pipes; 2 ridge chimneys, that to west shared. A rear wing, west, of 2 storeys and, east, of one storey. The rear fenestration is altered; 2 flush 12-pane sashes in the third storey. INTERIOR: the hall has tiled floor patterned in black and white, dado, cornice, architrave to front door, cornice and panelled pilasters to basket archway to stair hall. Cellars have sandstone front and back walls and a brick barrel-vault; a broad-board cellar door. The first storey has doors of 6 fielded panels. The west front room has architraves to embrasures and a 2-panel door to cupboard. The east front room has panelled embrasures, frieze and cornice. The stair hall has basket archway to rear on panelled pilasters. The good open-well open-string stair has carved brackets, curtail step with rose, 3 spiral-mould column-on-vase balusters per step, swept moulded rail, dado of broad boards rising with stair, under a moulded rail with bolection panels above; an octagonal domed lantern. The second storey landing has broad basket-arches to west and rear, bolection panels and doors of 6 fielded panels. The west front room has architraves and consoles to blocked archway to east front room, carved spandrels and key; architraves to shuttered embrasures, a frieze, cornice and ceiling rose. The east front room has panelled embrasures, blocked chimney-breast and a cornice. A secondary stair has surfaces covered between first and second storeys, 3 closed-string flights to the third storey with steps covered, 3 column-on-vase balusters per step, turned newels and straight rails. The third storey is relatively plain. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the rear garden has terrace walls of brick and stone; the rear wall to the garden has a probably pre C18 stone plinth, a Gothick ogee-arched opening, with arch of 2 S-shaped stones, and a plain stone coping. (Burne RVH: Chester Cathedral: London: 1958-: 218-20). Listing NGR: SJ4051466559