Building record 10556/1 - Chester Rows : 20 Bridge Street

<1> Chester Archaeology, 1985-1990, Chester Rows Research Project Archive, CHER 10556 (Paper Archive). SCH6789.

No 20 Bridge Street is a brick undercroft, currently in use as a shop, dated to 1873. It was built by T.M. Lockwood. There is no evidence of earlier fabric in the structure.

The undercroft facade is currently 20th century in design with a stone clad shop front and recessed doorway to the north. Steps up to Row level are situated to the south. The interior is largely modern clad but an art deco lavatory survives to the rear.

<2> Brown. A. (ed), 1999, The Rows of Chester: The Chester Rows Research Project (Book). SCH6790.

<3> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

<4> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1376069 (Web Site). SCH6528.

Shop and accommodation, now shop and office, probably on site of 2 former undercrofts and town houses. 1873. By TM Lockwood who, as usual in his work, retained no elements of the previous building. Brick, timber framing with painted brick and plaster panels; half-hipped red clay tile roof; symmetrical front, a pastiche. EXTERIOR: shopfront of hard stone tiles, probably 1930s, has Art Deco vent and later door and window; flight of 12 steep steps south of shopfront to Row. The Row front has heavy turned balusters and timber rail; cast-iron rail between steps and stallboard; the stallboard is approx 3m from front to back; stone pier at each end backed by brickwork; 2 intermediate moulded octagonal posts; continuous stop-chamfered joists over stallboard and Row walk; painted brick wall to rear of Row has 3 blocked top-lights to street level shop, recessed porch with 3 steps and door of 2 short, 2 long and 2 short panels with 3-pane overlight; three windows of 2 1-pane lights with colonnette mullions, transom and 4 upper panes, 2 windows being north of the porch and one, narrower, south; framed and boarded passage door, south, with one step; brick relieving arches at each end over Row. Above the Row front a deep bressumer carries a jetty-beam on brackets; wrought-iron sign-bracket. The third and fourth storeys are expressed in 3 bays, the projecting central bay capped by a gable and the side bays small-framed. The third storey has a central canted 5-light oriel with convex pargeted sub-panels flanked by a cross-window in each side-bay. The fourth storey is jettied; the central bay has a timber balcony on shaped brackets with balusters and ornate corner-posts supporting the gable, before 2 cross-windows; each side-bay has a mullioned 2-light casement. The third and fourth storey windows retain shaped leaded stained glazing in upper lights but the former rectangular leaded panes in lower lights are removed. The gable has a coved jetty, herringbone struts, arched bargeboards and weather vane. Above the adjoining properties, the sidewalls are small-framed; a shaped brick chimney at each end. INTERIOR: at street level the shop and café has a row of 5 probably timber Delian columns; some plaster mouldings to beams and cornices. The Row and upper storeys, a solicitor's office, could not be inspected thoroughly; the open-well stair to the third storey is covered and probably altered; the internal doors are covered; some moulded cornices; the former main stair to the fourth storey is removed, now a light-well; an 1873 secondary stair to the fourth storey

<5> Heritage Potential, 2024, Level 2 Historic Building Recording Report: 20 Bridge Street, Chester, CH1 1NN, R4801 (Client Report). SCH9671.

A level 2 building survey was produced in 2024 for the ground floor of 20 Bridge Street, Chester.