Monument record 11035 - St John's House, Little St John Street

St John's House was a substantial, eighteenth century brick building two storeys high with a Georgian neo-classical facade. Photographs taken before its demolition suggest that it retained its eighteenth century form with little or no modification up to 1958. It was demolished in 1958 in order to prepare for the excavation of the northern part of the amphitheatre. Evidence was found for a seventeenth-century building on the site, in the form of a stone inscription dated 1664, although its plan was not recovered. This was probably built during the restoration of the area outside the New Gate following its extensive destruction during the Civil War. During excavations at the amphitheatre site between 2001 and 2003 (ECH4299), part of the foundations of St John's House were revealed and recorded (2). The foundation trenches were surprisingly shallow, given the size of the house, with sandstone blocks and only one course of brick apparently buried below the eighteenth century ground level. The foundation trenches were seen to cut a construction deposit contemporary with St John's House, and some of this material was thought to include demolition debris from a previous structure on the site (1).

<1> Chester Archaeology, 2001, Chester Amphitheatre Investigations Summer 2000, R2705 (Client Report). SCH4814.

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