Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST PETER (1376247)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SE EASTGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/4/150 (North side) 28/07/55 Church of St Peter (Formerly Listed as: EASTGATE STREET Church of St Peter) GV I Parish church, now church and Christian centre. Said to have been founded by Ethelfleda in 907, the present structure is C14, C15 and C16, altered and restored C17, C18 and C19. Red sandstone; roof not visible. PLAN: approximately square in plan. The north aisle contained beneath floor level the undercroft of a medieval town house, filled and paved over. Embraced west tower, formerly with spire; continuous nave and chancel of 4 aisles with floor at level of Watergate Row. EXTERIOR: south face: flight of 7 stone steps leads to south doors and to Watergate Row. Replaced diagonal-boarded double doors in restored archway; 3 rectangular windows, 1886-9, of 4 lights with 3 Decorated windows above, rebuilt in Perpendicular style 1886-9; stonework of south face partly removed by Thomas Harrison 1803, where the Pentice (Council Chamber) was removed. The tower rises one stage above roof, with clock, bell opening of 2 cusped lights, crenellation, crocketed pinnacles and a pyramid roof of slate in the manner of John Douglas, late C19, with its faces interrupted by a continuous, horizontal louvre; wind vane; there was formerly a spire, removed and rebuilt C16, taken down C17, then rebuilt and finally removed C18. The west end, partly behind the Victoria public house, Nos 2 & 4 Watergate Street and Row (qv), has a plain face to the tower. The north windows of the Perpendicular north aisle have panel tracery. The east end has 2 low-pitched gables, plainly expressed. The 2 central aisles of the nave have traceried windows larger than that of the south aisle, formerly the chapel of St George; the north aisle, now containing the organ, has an inserted rectangular window of 2 lights. INTERIOR: the 3-bay arcades do not match the window bays. The tower piers, rectangular in plan, support a ribbed vault of 8 panels over the baptistry, with a circular bell-hole. The north-east pier has a damaged medieval fresco around a niche which held a Virgin and Child. The 2 southern arcades with through mouldings are Decorated, the northern arcade Perpendicular, dated 1535-38. The outer north aisle has a lean-to roof of low pitch with arch-braced main beams which have carved foliar bosses, and carved spandrels of 3 trusses; the inner north aisle has a restored camber-beam roof; the inner south aisle has shallow king-post trusses; the roof to the outer south aisle is replaced. Galleries were first recorded in 1637, but were altered C18 and C19; they cover the outer north and south aisles and part of the west end. 2 carved corbel stones project from the south wall; a C15 bronze, said to commemorate a lawyer; pews probably mid to late C19; east window glass 1862 and 1963, one to Prince Albert; monument on north wall, c1750, to Henry Bennett; bells by Rudhall of Gloucester, 1709. (Cheshire Sites and Monuments Record: Collens J: Chester City: 3007/12/1). Listing NGR: SJ4052866303