Building record 10483/2 - Chester Rows: 45 Watergate Street Row

No 45 Watergate Street Row is a three storey town house, currently in use as a shop, of a probable 16th or 17th century date. There has been significant alterations to the building in the 19th and 20th century with a 19th century facade and reconstruction to the rear in 1980. The Row house is wider than the undercroft. The facade is entirely late 19th century in date, designed in the Vernacular Revival style. The Row level shop front is modern and unremarkable. The upper floors are characterised by false timber framing with a central gabled bay jettying out on both levels. The present town house was added in the 16th century of which only a few features remain including traces of timber framing in the stairwell. In the 18th century the second floor was added with evidence of a single truss at attic level. In the 19th century the house was further altered with the introduction of the present facade and the encroachment of the street frontage some 1.2m into the street. Finally, in 1980, the house was further altered including the stripping of the interior, the insertion of a new staircase and the complete reconstruction of the rear section. The Row walkway is fronted by a tripartite stone balustrade extending up from the street level undercroft, each section containing four open lancets. The walkway is 2.4m wide of which the stallboard is 1.3m and the Row walk 1.1m. 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.