Listed Building: ST WERBURGH ROW AND CLEMENCE HOUSE (1376395)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SE ST WERBURGH STREET 595-1/4/351 (South West side) 13/09/90 Nos.33-49 AND 49A (Odd) St Werburgh Row and Clemence House (Formerly Listed as: ST WERBURGH STREET St Werburgh Row Nos 33-49 (odd) & 49A and Clemence House) GV II Range of shops and offices. 1935. By Maxwell Ayrton. For the Hodkinson Trustees, probably of the late GE Hodkinson. Rendered brick, yellow sandstone, granite, brick and reinforced concrete with Westmorland green slate roof, the main ridge parallel with the front. Free style. EXTERIOR: one storey south, 3 storeys central portion, 2 storeys north. A recessed 14-bay colonnade to the front has slightly fluted Roman Doric columns of pebbly concrete on plain square plinths. The south 3 bays curve outward with the roof, hipped at the end, carried on the curved colonnade; the next 3 bays are 3-storey with 2 separated front gables, that to the north sweeping down to the eaves of the 2-storey portion. The north end is linked to Clemence House. The south shop, of 3 bays, has 2 windows, each with one large pane beneath the transom and 4 small panes above it; the round-arched doorway in a black wall has 4 flush panels with incised margins. The next four office-and shop bays have modern plate-glass doors and frameless square-bay windows in granite surrounds; then a brick bay with round-arched double doors, each leaf having 4 flush panels with incised margins. The next 4 office-and-shop bays are plate glass and granite. The shop in the 2 northern bays has a varnished timber and glass front with a small-pane door, plus a similar window in the north return which terminates against a projecting buttressed sandstone wall containing a hollow-chamfered round archway to Clemence House's forecourt; the wall rises to form the gabled stepped parapet to the north-west end of the roof; the face of the buttress is inscribed GEH 1935 and MAXWELL AYRTON ARCHITECT. The colonnade has a scarf-jointed bressumer, stop-chamfered cross-beams and square joists. The upper storey casements of 6-pane lights stand proud of the wall-face on shaped timber brackets: the second storey has a 2-light casement between a pair of 2;3;2 light mullioned casements in the 3-storey portion and 3 similar 2;3;2 light casements in the 2-storey portion; the third storey has a composite window of one, 2 and one lights between a pair of 1;3;1 light casements, each under one of the front gables. A rendered brick 2-flue chimney stands behind the 3-storey ridge; the roof-valleys are swept; square rainwater pipes form a feature of the upper storeys, but are taken internally behind the colonnade. The front of Clemence House and its link-wall to St Werburgh's Row are of yellow sandstone, toothed into the rendered return of the Row's north end. The link wall has a cast-iron gate in a round-arched entry to the rear access way; the entrance to Clemence House is in a broader hollow-chamfered round archway; the second storey has a 3-light window with chamfered mullions and transom and basket-arched upper lights. The yellow brick rear wall of St Werburgh's Row is featureless and the altered rear portion of Clemence House is of no interest. INTERIORS are not of special interest. In a key position facing the Cathedral Close, in composition and detailing this item is a significant piece of townscape. (Improvement Committee Minutes: Chester City Council: 6/9/1934). Listing NGR: SJ4053466422