Building record 10539/2 - Chester Rows: 34 Eastgate Street Row

No 34 Eastgate Street Row is a three storey town house with attic, currently in use as a shop and offices, of a probable 18th or 19th century date. The main building material is stone. The front facade consists of a modern shop frontage with recessed arcade central doorway. The upper levels consist of a band of near continuous fenestration of six lancet windows on the first floor above Row level and three pairs of lancet windows on the second floor. The attic floor consisted of a stone gable with a circular window on an east west aligned slate roof. The interior of the town house has been largely stripped of all original features with a single mid 19th century office to the rear of building and the rest modern. 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.