Building record 10479/2 - Chester Rows: 27 Watergate Street Row

No 27 Watergate Street Row is a two storey town house, currently in use as a shop, of a probable mid 17th century date with later alterations. The Row level shop front consists of a passage door leading to a passage parallel to, and adjacent with, the passage of the adjacent property. The present shop front is largely 19th or early 20th century in date. The internal floor plan has been largely removed in the shop creating a single room the full length of the building although differences in the present floor level the original shop was 3.01m deep behind which was the private house. A 17th century fireplace survives. The Row walkway consists of a boarded walk ranging from 2.1m wide at the eastern end to 2.35m wide at the western end. The boarded stallboards slope only slightly and are fronted by a balustrade of early 18th century design. The stallboard is 1.95m wide and 0.22m deep. A central pair of Tuscan columns support the upper floors with brick columns at either end. The upper floors consist of an 18th century facade with a truncated earlier range of mid 17th century date. 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.