Listed Building: WATERGATE HOUSE (1376469)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/402 (South side) 10/01/72 Watergate House (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET Watergate House) GV II* Town house, then headquarters of North Western Command, now offices. 1820. By Thomas Harrison. For Henry Potts, Clerk of the Peace. Flemish bond brown brick, with stone dressings later stuccoed; grey slate roofs with lead rolls. EXTERIOR: basement and 2 storeys, with 3 sashes to each storey of main block on north, west and east fronts; a probably contemporary service wing to south is recessed, east, and projects, west. The square plan of the main block, with main entrance at its north east corner giving access through a lobby to a central top-lit hall, allows principal rooms on all 4 sides. A 2-storey convex quadrant recessed into the north-east corner contains the main entrance with curved 8-panel door, 4-pane sidelights and 3-pane overlight in Ionic doorcase approached by 6 curved stone steps repaired in concrete; the second storey has a 12-pane sash in a stone architrave bearing the initials ER (Edwardus Rex). The north front to Watergate Street has three 9-pane sashes to basement, facing an area with stone retaining wall and cast-iron railings; each upper storey has 3 recessed 12-pane sashes with simple painted stone sills and gauged brick flat arches. All fronts have plinth, moulded band and cornice. The east front to Nicholas Street Mews has a barred opening in plinth, behind a raised pavement with damaged cast-iron railings on a round-topped stone base; each upper storey has 3 sashes as on north front; 6 repaired stone steps, rising parallel with the frontage, lead to each side of the access landing to a door of 6 flush panels with blocked overlight, left. The recessed service wing behind a shallow brick-walled yard, has an altered door; a 12-pane recessed sash with one blocked window opening to each of the 2 storeys above and an added dormer to attic. The west front to garden has a broad segmental central brick bow containing a curved tripartite french sash of 8;12;8 panes with a tripartite sash of 4;12;4 panes above; to each side there is a 12-pane recessed sash to each storey. A raised stone pavement has a grated recess for a basement window. The projecting service wing, right, has a damaged 16-pane sash to lower storey, with a similar window and a blocked opening above. The south elevation to the service wing has a 20-pane recessed sash and a damaged tripartite sash of 4;12;4 panes to the lower storey, three 20-pane sashes to the second storey and 2 blocked openings to the attic storey; the lower portion, left, has a replaced boarded door with overlight, a 16-pane sash to each side and three 20-pane sashes to upper storey. INTERIOR: detailed notes of the interior could not be taken. The plan is probably unique. The entrance leads through a domed circular corner lobby to the octagonal central hall with a pair of pillars, west, supporting a gallery-landing. The stone main stair south has moulded iron balusters. Conversion to offices has left structure and detail largely undamaged, most notably the west range of rooms (Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-: 47-48). Listing NGR: SJ4022066191