Building record 11030 - St John's Cottages, Little St John Street

St John's Cottages, named after the nearby Church of St John the Baptist (CHER 11033), are found on the western side of Little St John St., at the point where it forms a steep and narrow lane descending from the church to the river. The owners report that the building stands on loose fill, suggestive of an underlying earlier structure or earthwork (2).

The building consists of two storeys and attics, and has five irregular bays extending from east to west at right-angles to the steep alleyway descending to the Dee. A cellar lies beneath the two easternmost bays. The south elevation overlooks a garden falling steeply towards the river, and while it forms the front of the building it is likely that the principal entrance was originally from the north (1).

On this side there is a gabled projection, possibly a former stair turret but more plausibly a porch, rising to just short of the main eaves level and covering the second bay from the east; in the re-entrant on its east side there is a single-storey lean-to, while against the west side there is another lean-to the triangular form of which respects the drive to the Bishop's Palace, which adjoins to the west. On the south front there is a small two-storey projection on the westernmost bay, from which a later lean-to outbuilding projects further southwards. All these projections were present by 1805 except that to the east of the turret, which was added between 1874 and 1898. The south front and the structures projecting from it are of brick, as is the west gable, but the remainder of the exterior walls are covered in roughcast render and are conceivably of timber framing. The chimney stacks are distributed irregularly; they were all in existence by the time of McGahey's 1855 bird's-eye view of Chester. The largest, which projects externally, is on the north side of the central bay and contains four flues. Three flues rise in a stack on the north-east corner, and there is a two-flue stack dividing the first and second bays from the west. The fireplaces, unless mentioned specifically below, are blocked. The roofs are of Welsh slate. It's location suggests ecclesiastical origins, and it appears on Lavaux's 1745 map of the city, and on Boydell's prospect of 1749 (2, 3).

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 469844 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

<2> English Heritage, 2004, The Environs of Chester Amphitheatre: Preliminary Building Assessments, R3210 (Client Report). SCH6526.

<3> de Lavaux, A, 1745, Plan of the City and Castle of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH5255.