Building record 10609 - Chester Rows: 16-24 Lower Bridge Street Oddfellows Hall

No 16-24 Lower Bridge Street, also known as Oddfellows Hall, is a three storey town house with a hall behind, it is six bays wide. At street level there is a flat roofed single storey shop front projecting out from the main facade. The house was built in 1676 by Lady Mary Calveley with later additions including a front staircase in 1678, a north bay in the 19th century and the single storey shop front. The total width of the facade is 17.52m and excluding the 19th century north bay, 13.5m. It is built of rendered brick with a Welsh slate roof. The street, undercroft, level consists of a flat roofed single storey shop units with the main entrance in the third bay. A frieze above the door is inscribed ‘Oddfellows Hall’. The upper floors have 12 pane flush sash windows with a hipped roof that does not extend over the 19th century bay. Due to the rise in ground level from east to west on the street, the ground floor level at the rear is the first floor level on the street front. There is a modern brick built outhouse obscuring the right hand bay. 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.