Listed Building: NUMBER 14 STREET | NUMBERS 12 AND 12A ROW (1376065)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SE BRIDGE STREET AND ROW 595-1/4/39 (West side) 28/07/55 No.14 Street and Nos.12 & 12A Row (Formerly Listed as: BRIDGE STREET No 14 Street & Nos 12 & 12A Row) GV II Undercroft and town house, now building society office. Medieval undercroft with visible portions not closely datable; C17 from Row level upward; altered C19 and C20. Sandstone, timber framing, now rendered, and brick; grey slate roof at right-angle to street. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys including undercroft and Row levels. Late C20 shopfront, but with fluted pilaster of earlier front to each side. Iron balustrade to Row front has 3 rails and triple spearheads; gently sloping stallboard approx 3m from front to back; brick side-walls; north post at rear of stallboard has shaped brackets to main-beam and beams over stall and Row walk; exposed joists. The back wall to Row has a shopfront probably c1900, having double doors of 2 panes with a 2-pane sash above a raised panel to each side, in a case with a moulded architrave; timber-framed plaster panels; a framed and boarded rear-passage door, south, in heavy frame with architrave. Carved fascia above Row opening; rendered timber-framed upper storeys; 3 flush sashes to third storey have 6-pane upper leaves and glazing bars removed from lower leaves; one flush 12-pane sash, partly in the gable, to the fourth storey; plain renewed bargeboards and finial. The rear elevation has a door from the passage and a pair of margined flush 12-pane sashes in a single opening; the upper storey has two 8-pane sashes with one glazing-bar removed; flush verge. The former cottage at rear is C19, with no visible features of special interest. INTERIOR: access to the undercroft is not normally practical, but it was opened early 1990 for structural inspection. 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. The rear room at street level has some probably medieval squared rubble sandstone walling with brick walling above and a blocked opening in the north wall; all features further forward are covered; 2 probably C17 beams are now concealed. The rear room partly extends behind No.16 Street (qv). At Row level all features are clad. The third storey has a large parlour partly over the Row with north-south joists, probably C17, and C19 features including a corner fireplace; the rear room is clad. The fourth storey has C17 roof structure, partly visible, and some C19 features. (Chester Rows Research Project: Harris R: Bridge Street West Nos.2-20: 1989-1990). Listing NGR: SJ4051066240