Listed Building: NUMBER 21 STREET | NUMBER 27 ROW (1376428)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/389 (South side) 28/07/55 No.21 Street and No.27 Row (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET No.21 Street & no.27 Row) GV II* Undercroft and town house then shops; and in October 1991 a small undercroft office, a Row shop and vacant upper storey. C13, rebuilt from Row level upward mid C17 at rear and early C18 at front as shops and town house with C20 internal alterations. Sandstone undercrofts; brown brick upper storeys with some timber framing at rear and inside; grey slate roof, ridge at right-angle to front. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys plus deep undercroft below street level; roof attic. Central part-glazed door of 2 panels to street with plain shop window to left and boarded double warehouse doors to undercroft, right. 2 Tuscan columns to Row front, with timber rail on panelled posts and heavy turned balusters; altered Georgian shopfront to Row has boarded door, left. Third and fourth storeys are of brown brick in irregular Flemish bond with raised panels under windows, those on the third storey replaced in simplified form; 3-course band at fourth storey floor level. Nearly flush sashes; the third storey has a central 12-pane sash with a taller 24-pane sash to each side; a blocked opening at centre of the fourth storey with a 16-pane sash to each side; plain wedge lintels of painted stone; simple stone-coped brick parapet. The rear is brown brick in irregular bond with minimal small-framing to main gable. INTERIOR: the late C13 undercroft has coursed sandstone rubble walls and a quadripartite vault of 3 bays with chamfered ribs on moulded corbels. Half of the front bay is cut away to accommodate a deep stone-cut cellar and a self-contained shop. The main undercroft chamber has a brick floor; a later rear extension has walls of rougher sandstone rubble and a probably C18 brick barrel-vault with a rear wall now lined with breeze-blocks. The shop at street level has no visible features of special interest. The Row shop has surfaces covered and a fairly modern repositioned stair to the third storey. The front chamber of the third storey has early C18 panelling, alcove cupboards and overmantel to the side walls; there is one row of fielded panels beneath the dado rail and one above, with cornice removed, front wall altered and rear partition removed, leaving only the corner breast with fireplace of the former inner room. 2 eared architraves to doorways, one damaged. The former rear gable wall and the lower rear wing have timber framing. An oak dogleg closed string stair to the fourth storey has square newels including a through winder-newel at the turn, 2 column-on-vase balusters per step and straight rails. A similar stair from the fourth storey to the loft. The fourth storey has doors of 2 and 4 fielded panels, probably oak. The front chamber has panelled embrasures with benches. The middle room has a corner fireplace with damaged panelled overmantel. The attic has a probably C18 purlin roof. (Chester Rows Research Project: Brown AN & Grenville J & Turner RC: Watergate Street South: 1987-). Listing NGR: SJ4045566247