Listed Building: NUMBERS 34, 36 AND 38 ROW | NUMBERS 38 (1376437)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SW 595-1/3/412 WATERGATE STREET AND ROW (North side) Nos.38, 40 & 42 Street and Nos.34, 36 & 38 Row (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET No 38 Street & No 34 Row) (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET Nos 40 & 42 Street & Nos 36 & 38 Row) 28/07/55 GV II* 2 undercrofts with a town house 17.5 metres wide above, now 2 undercroft shops and bookmakers and 2 Row shops, one of 2 bays. Parts of the early-mid C14 structure survive at all levels; from late C16 onward the storeys from Row level upward have been modified, but they are the best example in Chester of the rarer type of medieval town house which had hall and buttery parallel with the street. The fronts were largely rebuilt C19 and early C20. Sandstone, timber framing, brick; grey slate roofs. EXTERIOR: the building now has 4 storeys including undercrofts, Row level and the third and attic storeys which were inserted. The front to the undercroft of No.38, rebuilt in brick, has no elements of special note; the east party wall of medieval coursed sandstone is visible. The Row front has end-piers rebuilt in brick, a central Tuscan column, spiked cast-iron railings and a bressumer with facia and cornice; the frontage of the former house to the back of the Row walk is rendered, with a tripartite sash of 8;16;8 panes west of centre and a modern glazed door in a pilaster doorcase. The third and attic storeys with gable to street are rendered, with 2 replaced windows to each storey. Nos 40 & 42 have late C19 shopfronts to the undercroft with moulded window frames and pilasters which have bell-shaped capitals. The Row front, with 2 bays to No.34 and one to No.36, has 4 shaped posts and a timber rail on thin turned balusters; the posts at the corners of No.34 are set against medieval jowled oak posts morticed for a deep guard-rail, now lost; there are 2 shaped posts to Crook Street, c1900. The frontage of the former houses to the back of the Row walk has a cross-boarded oak door of heavy oak planks on long wrought-iron hinges in a moulded oak frame of large scantling and an inserted 2-light window. The applied timber-framed fronts to the third and attic storeys, each with a gable to the street, are c1900 and of no interest. Behind the Row walk the west side of No.42 Street and No.36 Row to Crook Street is of C17 brick, repaired in parts C20, with a brick band of 3 courses at third storey floor, a corner chimney, a large lateral chimney and a smaller chimney further back; replaced cross-windows have cambered brick heads. The rear has a gable to No.32, a roof parallel with the rear to No.34 and a long, gabled rear projection to No.36, altered loading doors to the third storey, altered windows and a chimney between Nos 32 & 34. INTERIOR: the undercroft to No.38 Street has whitewashed coursed rubble sandstone walls, a doorway with chamfered jambs and a plain lintel on cusped corbels, a small recess at floor level in the west wall, a broad 3-centred chamfered stone arch carrying the front wall of the great hall above, with corbels for floor joists projecting from its front and rear faces, a corbel in the rear wall near the north-east corner; there is an arch-braced chamfered cross-beam in front of the arch and one behind it; the braces are on corbels shaped to their profile, the beam ends on bridging joists carried on rounded stone corbels. The front part of the undercroft to No.40 Street is concealed by removable cladding; the rear part entered from No.42 Street shows coursed rubble sandstone walls, the rear face of an arch similar to that in No.38 Street, carrying the front wall of the hall above, and an arch-braced beam similar to the rear beam in No.38 Street. At Row level No.32 stands above No.38 Street, No.34 stands above No.40 and No.36 above No.42. Nos 32 & 34 Row contain the former great hall and screens passage, with the chambers in front of them; No.36 Row occupies the former buttery and front chambers, and a later rear wing, now incorporating No.2 Crook Street (not included) which has no visible internal features of special interest. Interconnected, Nos 32 & 34 Row are described together. Much of the walling of the hall is concealed by later finishes in No.32, but is visible in all storeys of No.34. The screens passage, shown as an access on maps before 1875, is marked by the front and rear doorways of No.34, an altered archway in the front wall of the hall and 3 chamfered pointed arches in the party wall with No.36, now blocked; there is a rebated pointed archway formed of 2 stones in the front wall of the hall east of the screens passage; the corbels for the former chamber floor joists are visible. Within the hall a large early C17 stack with back-to-back inglenooks at Row level was inserted, with an intermediate floor with crossed chamfered oak beams, a timber-framed partition wall between Nos 32 & 34, fireplaces to the third storey, that to No.34 having a plaster overmantel with round panels between incorrect Ionic pilasters, and a ceiling with moulded plastered beams. There is a stair in each property thus formed, against the front wall of the former great hall. There is some small panelling against the partition in No.32. The altered stair in No.32 is in a close-studded well; the stair with ornate balusters survives, damaged, between the third and fourth storey in No.34 and a section of balustrade is displayed. Part of the stone flag floor is visible at the foot of the stair in No.32. There is damaged timber framing of the partition between front rooms of Nos 32 & 34 and large framing between Nos 34 & 36. There is a corner fireplace in the front room of No.32. The undercroft of No.42 Street is wholly covered in modern lining, with no structural features visible. The rebated side of the 3 buttery arches show in the party wall of No.36 Row with No.34 Row and there are 3 beams to the Row storey ceiling. The front room of the third storey is plastered except for a glazed panel showing the large framing and wattle of the party wall with No.34; the second room has a chamfered beam from front to back and later joists; a chamfered beam over the partition to the third room; a corner fireplace in the third room. The attic storey has a 2-panel door to the front room; the ridge-piece, rough purlins and 2 collars are visible. The form of the medieval house is comparable with Tackley's Inn, Oxford. No.38 Street and No.34 Row were listed on 10/01/72. (Chester Rows Research Project: Brown AN & Grenville JC & Turner RC: Watergate Street: Chester: 1988-). Listing NGR: SJ4041066266