Listed Building: NUMBER 22 ROW | NUMBER 22 STREET (1376429)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/408 (North side) 28/07/55 No.22 Street and No.22 Row (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET No.22 Street & No.22 Row) GV II* Undercroft and town house, now shops and offices. The undercroft is probably C14, timber framing of the upper structure C17 and brick facade and casing mid C19. Sandstone, timber framing and Flemish bond brown brick; grey slate roof. EXTERIOR: painted rusticated stone front below Row and to corner with Goss Street has a segmental-arched doorway containing a covered broad-board door, west, and a camber-arched 4-pane central window. Rendered brick end-piers to Row; 2 intermediate Tuscan pillars; cast-iron railings with round-arched heads carry a double rail separated by roundels; rendered bressumer with cornice moulding; rendered front to Row shop has a half-glazed 4-panel door between panelled pilasters at west and a small 3-light camber-arched shop window at centre. 2 recessed 12-pane sashes to third storey have painted stone sills and wedge lintels; brick string-course, with one upper course oversailing 2 courses, at second floor; 2 nearly-flush sashes to fourth storey have painted stone sills and gauged brick arches; brick cornice projects in three stages: 1 course; 2 courses; 1 course, below a parapet of 11 courses with a moulded stone cap. The east side to Goss Street has a recessed doorway in a shouldered architrave approached by 6 repaired stone steps, with a door of 6 fielded panels. There are 12-pane and 16-pane sashes and a 16-pane stair window. The full-width gable to rear is largely concealed by No.1 Goss Street (not included). INTERIOR: the west wall of the undercroft contains a formerly 4-bay structure of Samson posts carrying a damaged bridging joist of large scantling. The front post, partly cut away, has a damaged jetty-bracket towards the Row. 2 Samson posts remain further back, with a chamfered cross-beam on the bridging joist opposite each carrying broad, heavy common joists. Brick supports are inserted under the east ends of the cross-beams. There is a barrel-vaulted rear extension of plastered brick, probably C18, not of full width. The shop at Row level has a timber post exposed in the west wall and a panelled window embrasure. The structure of the third and fourth storeys are concealed by modern surfaces; there is a simple panelled fire-surround in the front room of the fourth storey. (Chester Rows Research Project: Brown AN & Grenville JC & Turner RC: Watergate Street: Chester: 1988-: 31-32). Listing NGR: SJ4045666280