Building record 10467/2 - Chester Rows: 46 Watergate Street Row

The Row building at No 46 Watergate Street Row is an 18th century former galleried Row building enclosed in 1715. It is built of brown brick with ashlar quoins to the right and with a Welsh slate roof. The former Row level of the building includes a staircase from the undercroft of 18th century date, the shop front is largely 19th century in date while the rooms to the rear are better preserved with traces of 17th century panelling re-used as partition walls and an early 18th century cornice. The upper floors appear largely 18th century in style. Documentary evidence gathered as part of the Chester Rows Project indicate this property, along with the adjacent line as far as No 54 Watergate Street Row (CHER 10470) were enclosed at Row level by Dame Cotton in 1715. The survey of the buildings themselves indicate they underwent significant renovation at the same time. The traditional arrangement on the Rows consisted of a single storey stone undercroft at street level and a Row level building over it. Above the undercroft, the Row level building was more often timber built and consisted of a 'Row' level storey incorporating the Row walkway or stallboard extending over the frontage of the undercroft (this allowed extra head room for the undercroft and additional space for traders on the stallboards). The Row walkway was approximately 4-6m in width and incorporated the path and the stallboards themselves. The Row level storey formed the medieval shop opening onto the Row walkway. Due to differences in ground level between the front and back of the plots, the undercroft is at street level at the front and the Row level storey at ground level to the rear. The Row building also often included at least one further storey above it that extended forward again over the Row walkway. The upper floors were private, domestic quarters. The Rows are believed to be of medieval origin, dating at least to the 13th century followed by a gradual evolution of built form over a period of perhaps 100 years to create the present elements of undercroft, Row walkway and Row building. Survival of the built form of the Rows varies considerably and different elements of a single building can vary enormously in date from the 13th century through to the 20th century.