Listed Building: NUMBER 37 STREET | NUMBER 45 ROW ST URSULAS (1376436)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/392 (South side) 28/07/55 No.37 Street & No.45 Row (St Ursula's) (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET No 37 Street & No 45 Row) GV I Undercroft and town house now undercroft shop with newspaper printer at Row level and above. Probably c1180 to c1280; C16 or C17; largely rebuilt from Row level upward and refronted at street level late C19; altered C20. Sandstone at street and Row levels, timber frame with plaster panels above; slate roof. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys, one bay. Street level has half-glazed shaped double doors with shaped window to each side, under 3 low arches separated by C13-style half columns. The Row front has sandstone end piers, each with corbel to front and carved bracket of long reach to inner side, ending in a pendant; the sandstone balustrade has 3 panels, each with 4 arched openings; modern shopfront. Each upper storey has a tripartite window of 2;4;2 lights; the central portion projects to form a 2-storey square oriel carried on the Row bressumer, with small pentice roof to each side; the third storey has a transom. The ends of posts of the small framing are carved as Ionic pilasters. The hipped roof has a gablet over the oriel, with herringbone struts, plain bargeboards and a truncated bargepost. A modern extension conceals the rear. INTERIOR: the undercroft is of 5 and a half bays; the first half bay is an encroachment on the street; the next 3 bays have oak beams; the rear 2 bays have a quadripartite vault, late C13 or possibly earlier, with chamfered ribs; the rear doorway with a round, continuously chamfered arch suggests that it and the undercroft walls are late C12, the earliest features yet dated in the structure of Chester Row undercrofts; the early masonry continues under the Row, but not under the stallboard. A few panels of C16 or C17 small-framing are visible in the west wall at the stairwell to the third storey; a king-post rooftruss over the fourth storey, probably C19, contains some reused C17 timbers. Included as Grade I in recognition of the special interest of the undercroft. (Chester Rows Research Project: Brown AN, Grenville JC & Turner RC: Watergate Street: Chester: 1988-: 11-16, 23). Listing NGR: SJ4041466232