Listed Building: NUMBER 21 AND 23 STREET (1376344)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SE NORTHGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/4/282 (West side) 28/07/55 Nos.21 & 23 Street (Formerly Listed as: NORTHGATE STREET (West side) No 21 Row & No 23 Row) GV II* Shop formerly with living accommodation, now shop and cafe, on site of either one or 2 medieval tenements. The present building is 1897 by H Beswick for Charles Brown. There were no medieval undercrofts; the cellars incorporate Roman items. The interior was altered late C20. Sandstone, timber-frame with plaster panels, clay tile roof. EXTERIOR: cellar and 3 storeys, now converted to 2. The Row, 2 steps above pavement level, has an arcade with a narrow cusped archway to each side of a broader opening. Red sandstone end-piers and 2 stop-chamfered intermediate posts on sandstone plinths have carved jetty-brackets; the central opening has cusped brackets in the bressumer. The second storey has continuous mullioned and transomed leaded glazing with a 4-light canted oriel on brackets above each side-arch and paired 3-light casements above the central opening; 5 principal posts with spiral colonnettes support carved brackets to the jettied third storey which has an ornate skirt to the base of the front gable, 4 pargeted panels inscribed 18:C:B:97 beneath a mullioned casement of 6 leaded lights with 3 curved struts to each side; ornate panels above casement; shaped bargeboards on paired brackets; carved finial; cast-iron rainwater heads. The rear is of brick, with no features of special interest. INTERIOR: the cellar of No.21 contained a Roman pit; the cellar of No.23 has remains from Roman principia. The upper storeys have no visible features of interest. Nos 5-31 (odd) are collectively known as `Saddler's Row' and were previously listed as Row numbers. (Improvement Committee Minutes: Chester City Council: 1897-; Chester Rows Research Project: Harris R: Northgate Street: 1989-). Listing NGR: SJ4051066373