Monument record 10702 - Former Ironmongers Row (Northgate Street)

The west side of Northgate Street was known in the medieval period as Ironmongers Row, originally it may have extended south alongside St Peter’s Church, however, the church was enlarged in the mid 16th century and the row subsequently ended at what is now No 1 Northgate Street (1)

The earliest surviving evidence of properties on this street date to the mid 13th century when medieval deeds referred to small shops contained within a larger building, the domestic part of which was entered via a doorway between these shops. (1)

By the mid 14th century descriptions of these buildings indicate they were arranged with an undercroft level, shop over undercroft level and a chamber over shop level suggestive of the galleried row style seen elsewhere in Chester. (1) A deed from 1324 describes the property of William of Doncaster as being at least three stories high comprising a cellar or crypt with a street entrance, a shop above with access via a passageway to one side to the private residence above. (2)

<1> Chester Archaeology, 1985-1990, Chester Rows Research Project Archive, CHER 10702 (Paper Archive). SCH6789.

<2> Taylor, Henry, 1897, Six Early Deeds relating to property in Northgate Street, Chester (Article in Journal). SCH5517.