Monument record 11504 - Site of No's 105, 107 and 109 Foregate Street, Chester

<1> Donald Insall Associates Ltd, 2019, 105-109 Foregate Street, Chester: Historic Building Report, R4335 (Client Report). SCH8742.

In 2019, an historic building survey was undertaken on the site of No's 105, 107 and 109 Foregate Street, Chester. The original Victorian buildings were demolished in the 1990's during the development of an Argos store, and now, the Argos store itself, is proposed for demolition and re-development. This study was produced in support of this proposal.

Historically, the site is shown as developed on both the 1789 and 1833 town maps, although the level of detail is not sufficient to identify individual building footprints. The site is depicted in greater detail on the Chester Town Plan of around 1875 and on the 1st Edition OS map, indicating three properties, each with its own long outrigger located on the west side and a yard on the east side. 107, the middle property, has a particularly long garden or yard extending north. All the yards are shown with walls and small features such as water pumps and small outbuildings. Plans relating to alterations at No's 105 and 109 Foregate Street, dating to the 1970s, also a photograph dating to the 1980s prior to the construction of the Argos building, together with floor plans compiled before the demoliton of the buildings, give information on the internal layout of No's 105-109 Foregate street, also external architectural detail. They appear to have been built as domestic buildings of the early or mid-nineteenth century (eighteenth century houses in Chester frequently displayed more decorate Mannerist of baroque detail, such as expressed keystones and vousoirs in window lintels or elaborate eaves details. Exposed sash boxes are also seen in many eighteenth century houses but not in those of the early or mid-nineteenth century).

Number 105 had simple wedge shaped stone lintels and small paned sash windows, set back behind brick reveals. Its roof was a simple dual pitch with chimneys and gables to either flank wall. Numbers 107-109 may have been built as a pair. They had matching shallow arched brick window heads and shared a simple hipped roof with a central combined chimney stack. 107 retained its original brick frontage but had later sash windows with large panes. 109 was rendered and painted. Its upper floor windows were small paned sashes but the first floor had been altered to create a large display window in the 1930s.

Internally, all the houses appear to have a compact plan with staircases located across the centre of the plan, probably lit from a roof light or lantern. All the houses appear to have had one large room at the front at 1st and 2nd floor and either one or two rooms to the rear, plus accommodation in the outrigger. Both 107 and 109 were two bays wide, while 105 was three bays wide.

An 1845 contract shows that 105 was owned by Mrs Colley, who was renting the property, described as “House and Office” to S Crooks (or Brooks) for £23 per annum. The accommodation included “kitchen, washhouse, parlour, stair case, room over kitchen, drawing room, bedroom next to dining room, sky-light, bedroom in attic and store in attic.”1
The Pigot and Co. Commercial Directory for the County of Cheshire for 1828-1829 lists Hugh Colley Esq in Foregate Street2 (prior to numbering becoming standard practice). The same entry appears in 1834. William’s Commercial Directory for 1846 notes a Mrs Colley in Foregate Street, with an adjacent property occupied by Mary Crooks4. The repetition of these names in the directory and the contact just a year earlier suggest that these entries relate to at least one of the houses on the site.

By 1892 Kelly’s Directory of Cheshire includes street numbering. It lists the following businesses: Edwin Dutton, pawnbroker, at 105 Foregate Street; John Beech, outfitter at 107; and Andrew Storrar, ironmonger at 109-111 Foregate Street5. The entry in Kelly’s Directory for 1939 notes S and H Morris Ltd, wallpaper merchants, at both 27 and 109 Foregate Street6. This corresponds to a building plan approval of 1934 for the alteration of 109 to form a ground and first floor showroom for Messrs S and H Morris7 in a simple Art Deco style.

Drawings for minor alterations during the 1970’s give some clues as to later alterations, mainly of poor quality, and the earlier form of the original buildings on this site. During the 1970s, there were various minor alterations to the buildings, relating to the use of 105 as a clothing shop and jewellers (Dutton’s) and number 109 as a bar (Lennon’s). These included removal of a lantern light running the full ridge length of an iron and timber trussed roof to a single
storey wing filling the entire plot at the rear of 109; possibly a workshop of late 19th century construction.