Building record 11027 - The Old Bishop's Palace, Souter's Lane

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 470309 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

National Heritage Listing Description: Palace of the bishops of Chester, later YMCA hostel, now offices. Dated 1751, with C19 and C20 alterations. Stone-dressed red brick; hipped grey slate roofs. EXTERIOR: cellars and 3 storeys of 11 windows to main block. Stone plinth; quoins with concave rustication. Canted projecting entrance bay, probably later C18, has replaced door flanked by a 12-pane sash in each oblique face; three 12-pane sashes left of entrance bay and 5 to right. The first floor has 12-pane sashes, with 3 to entrance-bay; the second floor has 6-pane sashes. The sashes are recessed two-and-a-quarter inches; the entrance bay has simple painted stone sills and rubbed brick flat arches; other sashes have well-moulded sills of painted stone and rusticated wedge lintels with ornate keys. First-floor band; first-floor sillband to entrance bay; rainwater pipe with moulded lead head to each side of entrance bay, that to left dated 1751. Modillion cornice; 8-course brick parapet has stone corner blocks and coping. The left end has irregular pattern of sashes, most probably replaced. The right end of the main block has an inner-corner door to the ground floor; three 12-pane sashes to first floor and three of 6 panes to second floor, detailed as on main face of front. A one-bay right wing apparently of the original build; a probably mid C19 one-storey heavily stone-dressed lobby projects between the original building and a 3-storey 5-window recessed wing detailed as the entrance bay of the main block; the right end is canted, with a 12-pane ground floor sash in each face, one to each oblique face of the first and second floors. The exterior of the building other than the front door is virtually unaltered by C20 changes of use. INTERIOR: partly sub-divided, c1980, for office use, but retaining features of interest. A good open-well open-string stair of 6 flights but, if earlier description was correct, with turned balusters replacing the Chinese Chippendale balustrade then mentioned. A stone back stair with iron stick balusters and rail; a replaced secondary stair; some original 6-panel doors. A room with panelling, now painted and probably restored, on the ground floor, with one row of panels below dado and a tall row above dado; an excellent main room, now boardroom, on first floor with plasterwork intact including a coved ceiling with exuberant mid C18 decoration; a good deal of minor features of C18 plasterwork; some fireplaces and overmantels.

<2> Pevsner N & Hubbard E, 1971, The Buildings of England: Cheshire (Book). SCH3078.

The Old Bishop’s Palace was built for Bishop Peploe in the mid-eighteenth century.

<3> Harris, B.E., 1979, Bartholomew City Guides - Chester (Book). SCH394.

According to Harris the building was only occupied as the Bishop's Palace in 1870, when the former palace in the Cathedral precinct (CHER 10641/2) was replaced by the King's School

<4> English Heritage, 2004, The Environs of Chester Amphitheatre: Preliminary Building Assessments, R3210 (Client Report). SCH6526.

<5> Chester Archaeology, 1995, Heritage Assessment of Dee House and Environs, Chester., R2685 (Client Report). SCH4794.

<6> Mel Morris Conservation, 2016, The Old Palace, Chester - Historic Building Appraisal and Statement of Significance, R4205 (Client Report). SCH8528.

A detailed building assessment was undertaken in June 2016 for The Old Palace, Chester, in advance of proposed development.

The Old Palace is a south-facing building, approached off St. John’s Churchyard, and lying to the south of the Roman Amphitheatre in Chester. It sits overlooking the River Dee above a series of terraced platforms (former gardens and a house platform) located between the building and the escarpment above The Groves. The building is positioned close to a large retaining wall to the north, which separates the site from the former grounds of Dee House. The southerly aspect overlooking the River is an open, very attractive, setting, and the curtilage to the west is bounded by a tall brick retaining wall, which is separately grade II listed (CHER 11027/1). To the immediate west lies Souter’s Lane, which carves a deep channel down to the river and was reputedly Souterlode during the Middle Ages, the river-passage of the shoemakers4. Beyond that lie the Roman gardens and the city walls. Souter’s Lane was formerly known as Dee Lane, and is recorded as such on most historic maps.

The Old Palace was first built within the complex of buildings associated with the Church of St. John the Baptist, outside the monastic precinct walls, on land owned by the Diocese. It was built as a residence for Bishop Peploe in the 1730s, some time after he was installed as Bishop of Chester in 1726. It was around this time that The Groves was established as a fashionable riverside walk. The present name The Old Palace is entirely coincidental with this fact, as from his death in 1752 until 1866-70 it remained as a house (a mansion), until it became formally associated with the residence and administrative centre of the Bishops of Chester between 1866 and 1920. In 1920 the building was converted into the Chester YMCA and in 1922 Bishop Luke Paget (1919-32) moved into the Deanery within the Abbey precincts close to the Cathedral. The YMCA vacated the site in the 1980s and during 1987-8 the building was refurbished and extended as offices.

The building was the home of a number of important clerics: Samuel Peploe (Bishop of Chester), Revd. Samuel Peploe (Chancellor of Chester Diocese), Henry Raikes (Chancellor of Chester Diocese), and Bishop William Jacobson. All of these men made their mark on local society and some had a more distinct influence. It was also occupied at the end of the 18th century by Sir Robert and then Sir Foster Cunliffe, who used it as a city base. The association of all of these men with the building adds considerably to its historic value.

The building is listed Grade II* and contains some nationally significant interiors, with plasterwork by Italian stuccatori. The evidence of the development of the building is complicated but can be understood from the physical evidence, analysis of the floor plans, documentary information and written accounts. This reveals that Bishop Peploe’s house of the 1730s was extended with a large wing in 1754, which contains very splendid rooms of national importance, of which the Dining Room and Saloon survive in good condition, although they are not complete. This phase was probably designed by Sir Robert Taylor, one of the foremost architects of his day.

<7> Mel Morris Conservation, 2018, The Old Palace, Chester: Building Recording - Photography, R4207 (Client Report). SCH8529.

Photographic Record produced in May 2018 for The Old Palace, Chester, as part of a programme of recording in support of a proposed application to convert it to a wedding venue.

<8> Mel Morris Conservation, 2018, The Old Palace, Chester: Heritage Impact Assessment for Proposed Change of Use, R4208 (Client Report). SCH8530.

<9> Earthworks Archaeological Services, 2018, Ground Investigations at the Former Bishop's Palace, The Groves, Chester, Cheshire: An Archaeological Watching Brief, R4209 (Client Report). SCH8532.

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken during the excavation of geotechnical ground investigation trenches at The Old Palace, Chester. The ground investigations were carried out ahead of a proposed redevelopment of the site. Three trial trenches were excavated on the west side of the former Palace building, and three small test pits were excavated within the basement of the building. No significant archaeological deposits were encountered during the ground investigation works. This work follows on from an earlier archaeological evaluation, undertaken in 2017, that demonstrated that, between later disturbances related to both quarrying activities and service trench cutting, intact archaeology dating to both the Roman and post-medieval periods survives (ECH6497/SCH8401).