Listed Building: ST MARTINS LODGE (1376330)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4065NW NICHOLAS STREET 595-1/5/269 (West side (off)) 10/01/72 St Martin's Lodge GV II Villa in grounds, then parsonage, now police administration building. c1820. By Thomas Harrison, for his own home. Lined stucco and brown brick; grey slate hipped roof. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 3 bays by 3 bays. Plinth; moulded string course at second storey floor level; boldly projecting boxed eaves. The entrance front, east, has a door of 6 fielded panels in case with architrave, attached pilasters and entablature with modillion cornice; overlight; recessed 12-pane sashes with flush sills and heads lined in the stucco as if wedge lintels, one to each side of the entrance and 3 in the upper storey; 2 brick chimneys symmetrically placed on roof. The garden front, south, has a projecting central bay with pediment gable having a single-storey canted bay window with a 15-pane French sash in each face; the east bay has a 12-pane recessed sash in each storey; the west bay has a tripartite 4;12;4 pane sash to the lower storey and a recessed 12-pane sash in the upper storey; the upper storey of the central bay has a canted balcony with a probably replaced balustrade of intersecting slender curved rods and a 15-pane French sash. The lower sashes and the central upper sash have shaped external pelmets. The west face has a 25-pane margined French sash and 2 recessed 12-pane sashes in the lower storey and 3 recessed 12-pane sashes in the upper storey, all with cambered soffits; a small one-storey flat-roofed brick extension, north. The north face is of brown brick with irregular fenestration, painted stone sills and gauged-brick heads. INTERIOR: cellars, part barrel-vaulted in brick, have flagstone floors and stone steps. Entrance lobby with moulded plaster ceiling; doors of 6 margined panels; the south front room has panelled embrasure and shutters and a small cornice; the north front room has panelled embrasure and shutters, a blocked fireplace probably with original surround and a small cornice; the middle south room has panelled shutters to the bay window, a round-arched white-marble fireplace and a cornice; the back south room has panelled shutters and cornice; the stair hall has a segmental-arched ceiling over the rear part. The open-string stair has 2 quarter-landings, shaped brackets, 2 slender stick balusters per step and swept rail with rose; a rectangular lantern over the stairwell, set in a segmental-arched ceiling. In the second storey the rear and front south rooms have doors of 6 fielded panels; other doors are of 6 or 4 panels; the front south room has panelled embrasure, a wood fire-surround and a cornice; the south middle room has panelled shutters, a simple fire surround and a coved ceiling with central panel; the back south room has panelled shutters and a cornice. (Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-: 117). Listing NGR: SJ4029565980