Building record 10601 - Chester Rows: 29-31 Lower Bridge Street Tudor House

No 29-31 Lower Bridge Street, known as the Tudor House, is an early 17th century town house with a later extension to the rear with an 18th century cellar below and an undercroft at the street frontage. Dating of the undercroft was inconclusive as although the ceiling structure is contemporary with the Row level house, the stonework could be earlier.

At street level the shop front is modern brick with a half glazed door flanked by display windows beneath friezes bearing the words ‘Tudor’ and ‘House’. The interior consists of two undercrofts to the north and south, the entrance being via the southern half. The north undercroft consists of four bays with five bays in the southern undercroft. There is evidence of extensive remodelling in both undercrofts.

The Row level town house consists of four storeys with a gable end roof. The front facade is of stucco with timber framing with close studwork on the upper two floors and gable end. The former Row level, now enclosed, bears the inscription ‘This Tudor House was built about 1503 A.D. in ye reign of Henry VII’ however this is known to be false. The front facade of this level consists of three irregularly spaced casement windows with a stucco surround. The upper floors are each jettied out a short distance. The town house is accessed via a passage to the south.

The Row level was enclosed in 1728 by Roger Ormes and is presently divided into two rooms of unequal size; the larger, southern, of which contains features of a late 17th century date and a second smaller room to the north that has been much modernised. The central part of the floor is divided into two rooms areas of unequal size, one incorporating the landing and the other a large room. To the rear there is a single large room. The first floor level is dominated by a large gallery with a fine early 17th century plaster ceiling divided into three panels running north south each decorated with three large circular motifs and four small rectangular motifs at the corners. The rear bedroom contains a stone fireplace dated 1655 on the east wall that is a later insertion.

The framing of this building is unusual in that is does not have a V strut roof and the panelling is rather small. A number of samples taken from timbers throughout the house were subject to dendro-chronological analysis, only one of which could be dated to around 1618. (1)

Samples taken from the upper floors of the Tudor House for dendrochronological dating produced a variety of dates from the mid 15th to early 17th century suggesting that the building is unlikely to be earlier that the 17th century. (2)

An 18th century bakers oven and rock cut cellar was recorded to the rear of the structure in 1998. The oven was roughly circular, approximately 3m across and constructed of brick. It was located within a brick vaulted rock cut cellar. (4)

<1> Chester Archaeology, 1985-1990, Chester Rows Research Project Archive, CHER 10601 (Paper Archive). SCH6789.

<2> Brown. A. (ed), 1999, The Rows of Chester: The Chester Rows Research Project, p142 (Book). SCH6790.

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

<4> Chester Archaeology, 1998, Excavation Archive: 29-31 Lower Bridge Street, Chester (Unpublished Report). SCH7089.