Listed Building: ODDFELLOWS HALL (1376299)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SE LOWER BRIDGE STREET 595-1/4/233 (West side) 28/07/55 Nos.16-24 (Even) Oddfellows Hall (Formerly Listed as: LOWER BRIDGE STREET (West side) Nos 16-22 (even) & No 24 (Bridge House)) GV II* Town house, then a school, now club, offices and shops. 1676 altered 1678 for Lady Mary Calveley, occupied early C18 by John Williams, Attorney General of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire from 1702 and Cheshire and Flintshire in 1727, access altered late C19, the north bay added C19 and the first storey of the front projected to include shops late C19. Brown brick in irregular bond, rendered to the front; hipped grey slate roof, belled towards eaves, rises to a central rectangular flat roof, with formerly symmetrically placed lateral chimneys. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys of 5, then 6, bays. The first storey, in C19 manner, has projecting porch to third bay from south with basket arch under broken pediment with egg-and-dart moulding, with a bulgy pilaster to each side;; ODDFELLOWS HALL in raised capitals on the frieze. A projecting shopfront south of porch has a small-pane part-glazed door and a 3-light transomed shop window; 2 similar shopfronts north of the porch with a 3-light window and a 2-light window. The second storey has 6 bays, the added north bay being wider, with 7 pilasters, capitals coinciding with the third storey floor-string. 2 nearly flush 12-pane sashes in eared architraves south of entrance bay and 3 similar sashes north. The entrance bay has a shorter sash of 12 square panes in place of the former front door; before the north bay was added, the front was symmetrical with a pair of quadrant external stairs to the entrance. The third storey has 7 pilasters and 6 tall nearly flush 18-pane sashes. A bold cornice on painted stone brackets. The south side has lowest storey rendered with brown brickwork above; a blocked doorway has stone step. The second storey has a flush 12-pane unequal sash; the second-to-third storey half-landing has an 8;18;8 pane Palladian window in a stone case. Flush sandstone quoins at the south-west corner; sandstone plinth and flush bands to part of south wall; cornice as to the front. The rear best displays the character of a substantial late C17 town house, with symmetrical elevation of 2 storeys, the ground level one storey above the front pavement level, between flush quoins at both former corners. 5 nearly flush sashes under gauged brick heads to the lower storey and 5 tall 18-pane sashes to the upper storey; cornice as to front; the added northern bay has a matching sixth sash to each storey and a lean-to roof with plain flush verge. The north side is built against. INTERIOR: the entrance bay has inserted stair in plaster-panelled well to the second-storey stair-hall. A bolection-panelled door, now blocked, in each side wall above the stair gave access to the south and north front rooms. Good panelled doors in panelled cases, probably of oak, to major rooms. The front rooms have dado rails and panelling probably of oak, now painted, shuttered embrasures and cornices. The assembly room to the rear, the former garden front, has piers and beam to former folding doors. The south part has panelling, one row beneath dado rail and a tall row above, of oak, marble fireplace and oak overmantel against the south wall: the fireplace has panelled pilasters and frieze with central cartouche of 2 foxes rampant on a shield; the overmantel has swags and a Liver-bird cartouche. The north part has panelled dado, a marble fireplace against the north wall in an oak surround and a moulded plaster ceiling of 3 panels; cornices; all panels fielded, with bolection moulds. The stair hall has panelled dado, plaster panels above stair dado and oak panels to hall. The oak open-well closed-string stair has square newels, 2 massive vase balusters per step and moulded oak rail. The Palladian stair window has Ionic columns and entablatures to the side-lights. The third storey landing is panelled and has an incorrect triglyph frieze and dentil cornice. The rear room has probably Regency fireplace against the south wall and C18 fireplace against the north wall, shuttered embrasures and dentil cornice. The front rooms have panelled dados, panelled embrasures and moulded cornices. HISTORICAL NOTE: an engraving by Batenham, drawn c1816, shows the pair of external stairs of 1678, the first storey expressed as a stone or rendered plinth, the front 5-bay, symmetrical, the plain pilasters and face of the second and third storeys brick with stone floorbands, gauged brick heads to the second storey windows and 2 hipped front-roof gables. The O.S. 1:500 plan surveyed 1872 shows the present sixth bay, but also the external stairs and no projecting shops. (Chester Rows Research Project: Grenville J: Lower Bridge Street West: 1988-; Batenham: Engravings of Chester: 1816-; Ordnance Survey 1:500 Plans, First Edition: Chester: 1872-). Listing NGR: SJ4057166025