Listed Building: WHITE FRIARS LODGE (1376477)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066SW WHITE FRIARS 595-1/3/437 (North side) No.10 White Friars Lodge GV II Town house, now offices. Probably medieval and C17-C18 core, refaced, partly rebuilt and extended 1885 by TM Lockwood. Red sandstone, brown brick, Ruabon brick and terracotta; grey slate roof, gables to south, west and north, with terracotta ridges. EXTERIOR: cellars, 2 full storeys and attic; 3 windows to south, plus hip-roofed one-storey wing to west with long side to Bollands Court. The front to White Friars has 2 cross-windows under segmental gauged brick arches in the west wing; a door of 6 panels beneath 3 shaped leaded panes in a basket-arched opening with moulded brick jambs rising from corbels at the sill stringcourse; a terracotta cartouche in panel above door is inscribed WHITE.FRIARS.LODGE; 2 basket-arched mullioned and transomed casements have terracotta keystones supporting a second-storey stringcourse. Panels 4-courses high beneath a one-course moulded sillband; a central mullioned and transomed 3-light basket-arched window flanked by panels with terracotta pilasters and a basket-arched 2-light window east and west; terracotta keystones; a one-course moulded string; a row of 6 panels; a 2-course moulded sillband; a basket-arched 3-light leaded attic casement; plain brick pilasters and panels, the second and fourth panels containing small leaded fixed lights; 2 blank basket-arches above the window and panels support an aedicule inscribed 18.FB.85, probably for Frederick Bullin, in the gable apex; the verge has moulded dentils. The west face has a cross-casement, 2 small partly-leaded casements and a 3-light mullioned and transomed casement with an ornate cast-iron grille over the central lower light in the side of the one-storey wing. The second storey behind has a 2-pane casement, a moulded eaves-band, pilasters and 2 small leaded lights in gable; a shaped Ruabon brick chimney. Much of the rear gable end is of irregular bond brown brick, probably C18; three altered cross-casements are visible and, west, an inserted 2-pane casement with leaded glazing, tinted and patterned; a large Ruabon brick chimney, east; a modern rendered rear extension. The ornately decorated Ruabon brick and terracotta front is typical of TM Lockwood's work; unusual for him is the retention of parts of the earlier building. INTERIOR: the squared rubble sandstone cellar walls suggest medieval origin; a cambered roughly chamfered cross-beam approx 0.25m square looks C17 or possibly earlier. The first storey has an inner front door with patterned leaded glazing, a corner fireplace in the stair hall, possibly C18, altered, with Ionic pilasters. The stair is 1885, with closed string, turned newels, 3 stout barleysugar balusters per 2 steps and a screen of turned balusters to the outer side of the stair. The front east room has a now painted tongue-stopped chamfered beam, probably C17; the second storey rear room has a now painted beam with simply stopped chamfers, probably C17. A Greek Revival fireplace with cartouche in frieze beneath the mantel. (Improvement Committee Minutes: Chester City Council: 3/12/1884). Listing NGR: SJ4049166104