Building record 10493 - Chester Rows: 6 Northgate Street

No 6 Northgate Street consists of a stone undercroft and three storey town house of an early 19th century date. The town house is red brick with Welsh slate roof and a timber bressumer. The survey recorded little of note in the undercroft, being modern throughout. The Row level house is entirely 19th and 20th century with a modern shop front at Row level and plain red brick on the upper floors. The Row walkway at this point has no stallboard and the modern planked walkway itself is 1.85m wide at the northern end, narrowing to 1.65m to the south. The upper floors are supported by square stone pilaster type supports at each end and two unfluted Ironic stone columns in the centre. The Row front railing has a design of concentric squares with diagonals. There is a significant difference in height between this property and the adjacent one (No 4 Northgate 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.