Building record 10479/1 - Chester Rows: 21 Watergate Street

No 21 Watergate Street is a stone undercroft, currently in use as a shop, of a probable early 14th century date. The undercroft is 6.75m wide at the street frontage with three bays front to back each 4.02m square. Each bay is formed by a quadri-partite vault with chamfered ribs similar to that recorded at No 11 Watergate Street. Later doors are noted in the east and west walls although the walls themselves are of regular courses of dressed sandstone. A later extension, with brick barrel vaulting and poorly made masonry walls, was recorded to the south of the main undercroft. It appears to be contemporary with the 17th century Row house. There are traces of a second undercroft cut into the bedrock 1.6m to the north of the original undercroft and extends north to the present shop frontage, probably representing the encroachment of the shop front onto the street. 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.