Monument record 10701 - 13th-14th century undercroft at No 12 Eastgate Street (demolished)

During the construction of the present building at No 12 Eastgate Street in 1861 an earlier undercroft of 13th-14th century date was discovered. Unfortunately the structure collapsed and could not be preserved in the present building (1)

The vaulted part of the undercroft was some distance from the street frontage and consisted of two aisles, each of two bays of quadripartite vaulting of about 6.4m in width. During its demolition, a number of round marble shafts were found lying together in a square stone chamber, ‘the four sides of which were built on an inclined plane in an unusual manner’ (2)

The crypt as described in the late 19th century indicated that a circular staircaseset in the eastern wall connected the medieval crypt with the Row above. Building was formerly the premises of Mr. Beckett (4)

<1> Brown. A. (ed), 1999, The Rows of Chester: The Chester Rows Research Project, p166 (Book). SCH6790.

<2> Lawson, P H and J T Smith, 1958, The Rows of Chester: Two Interpretations, p12 (Article in Journal). SCH5750.

<3> n/a, 1864, A Brief Abstract of the Proceedings of the Society, p410 (Article in Journal). SCH5525.

<4> Hewitt, John, 1887, Notes on the Medieval Architecture of Chester, with Special Reference to the Rows and the Crypts (Article in Journal). SCH5536.