Listed Building: NUMBER 23 STREET | NUMBER 27 ROW (1376072)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SE BRIDGE STREET AND ROW 595-1/4/63 (East side) 10/01/72 No.23 Street and No.27 Row (Formerly Listed as: BRIDGE STREET No.23 Street & No.27 Row) GV II* Undercroft and town house, now undercroft office, Row shop and upper storeys partly in office use. Probably early-mid C14; 1804; altered C20. Flemish bond brown brick, grey slate roof with ridge at right-angle to street, hipped to front. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys, one bay. Modern office front to street; brick north pier; brick pier probably of sandstone, rendered; a fascia covers the bressumer. The cast-iron Row-front rail has bottom rail, stick balusters and plain top-rail; brick north pier, rendered south pier; 2 cast-iron Roman Doric intermediate columns; slightly sloped boarded stallboard 1.68m from front to back; modern tiled surface to Row walk; modern shopfront; covered door to rear passage, south; plaster ceiling; wood fascia hides Row-top bressumer. The brick upper storeys have painted stone sills and wedge lintels; 2 cross casements to the third storey have a large pane to each lower light and 6 panes to each upper light; 2 similar but shorter fourth storey cross-casements have 4 panes in each upper light; painted cornice and low stone parapet. INTERIOR: the undercroft 3 steps down from the street has a cased beam under back of stallboard, then 4 cross-beams each on end-posts and 2 inserted intermediate posts cased in wood. Flat oak joists have chamfers with stops visible at rear ends; one joist in the second bay has both ends stopped; 2 in the third bay have both ends of chamfers more simply stopped; a suspended ceiling covers the joists in the fourth bay. The sidewalls now covered, are stated to be sandstone, probably medieval. The Row shop has all surfaces covered. A Row door, now covered, with substantial architrave in the rear passage leads to the third and fourth storeys; as is common east of Bridge Street; the upper storeys suggest either a former courtyard house or a formerly separate rear dwelling. A late C19 stair leads to the third storey, with a partly covered sash with radial bars in the round arch at its head. A 6-panel door leads to the front room, now partitioned, which has a substantial skirting, a sub-panel to each window, a painted C19 fireplace, north, and a plaster cornice; a lateral stair behind the front room leading to the fourth storey has an open string, simple shaped brackets, a slender turned newel, covered treads, 2 stick balusters per step and a swept rail; the next third storey room from the landing, through a basket archway with pilasters, has a light-well above, and may have been inserted; the third room has a concave corner chimney breast, a cornice north and east and a ceiling rose; the mildly Gothick fourth room has 2 sharply arched niches, a broader 4-centred arched recess, a patterned cornice and a recessed 12-pane sash. The fourth storey front room has a blocked fireplace, north, and a sub-panel to each window; the passage has a basket archway with roll-moulded arrises to pilasters; the middle room has a 6-panel door; the north back room has a blocked corner fireplace and a sub-panel to the recessed 12-pane sash; a 6-panel door to the south back room which has a simple corner fireplace and a sub-panel to the recessed 12-pane sash. The back passage and the rear, externally, have no visible features of special interest. The principle area of interest is the undercroft; it is probable that there is more medieval structure than is now visible. (Chester Rows Research Project: Harris R: Archive, Bridge Street East: 1989-). Listing NGR: SJ4055866227