Building record 10478/2 - Chester Rows: 21 Watergate Street Row The Leche House

No 21 Watergate Street Row, commonly known as Leche House, is a two storey jettied town house with attic level currently in use as shops, of a probable 17th century date although heavily altered in later periods. The house was built by Alderman John Leche using an earlier timber frame of 15th century date. The front facade of the building is largely 17th century with later alterations. The Row level the shop front is 19th century with a door to the passage to the right and a modern doorway in the centre. The upper floors have an early 17th century timber framed frontage with carved features. The first floor has a bressumer with a running vine pattern above the Row front and is dominated by three large windows and false timber framing. The attic floor also has a bressumer at its base with regularly placed masks of green men and a large central window. The gable end has heavy pargetting and barge boarding of a mid 19th century date although the finial is likely to be earlier. The Row walkway consists of a sloping stallboard approximately 2m wide and 0.7m deep; it is fronted by a wooden balustrade. The posts supporting the upper floors sit within the stallboards themselves. The Row walkway is stone and concrete flagged, approximately 2.2m wide and on a slightly different angle to the adjacent property. The interior floor plan runs perpendicular to the street and parallel to the adjacent passage, the Row level has a shop at the front and the original rear plan of a hall, screens passage, parlour and service on a north-south progression. Although the house was largely built by Alderman Leche in the 17th century it also incorporated features of an earlier structure contemporary with the undercroft below. The hall is believed to be the earliest part of the house, with a core dating to the 14th century that was later extended to include the screens passage and the parlour in the 15th century. This was followed in the early post medieval period by the addition of the roof structure, internal partition walls and the passage along the side of the house. The final major phase of alteration dates to the early 17th century and the work of Alderman Leche. This phase introduced the present facade as well as internal alterations to many of the existing rooms including new detailing in the hall, remodelling of the first floor chamber and raising of the screens passage. New rooms were also added at Row and first floor level. Samples were taken from nine timbers in the Row level shop for dendro-chronological analysis, however, the evidence proved inconclusive. 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.