Building record 10657/2 - 11, Abbey Square, Chester

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 1376029 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Grade II* Listed Town house, now Church of England Retreat House. C1760, a little later than Nos 7-10 (qv). The house was developed on a lease, probably of 40 years, from the Dean and Chapter of Chester Cathedral. Flemish bond orange brick with grey slate roof. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellar. Painted stone plinth; boot-scraper by 4 apron steps of stone to door of 4 fielded panels above a large panel incised with St Andrew's cross in case of painted stone with eared architrave flanked by panelled pilasters carrying pediment on acanthus consoles; PAX HUIC DOMUI; SIT PAX INTROEUNTI; SIT IN HAC HABITANTI; SIT ET EUNTI PAX is painted on the frieze, and on the pediment the Diocesan arms dated 1925. Boarded door to basement, east, under rusticated wedge lintel with false keystone; first-storey sillband; rusticated quoins to the east corner. The first storey has 2 recessed 12-pane sashes west of the door and one crowded between entrance and basement door; the second storey has 2 tripartite sashes of 4;12;4 panes, inserted; the third storey has 3 recessed 6-pane sashes in square openings; the first and second storeys have painted stone sillbands and the third storey has painted stone sills; all have plain wedge lintels. Painted stone cornice beneath brick parapet with plain stone coping. The rear with a semicircular bow has 3 recessed sashes per storey, all unequal, of 15 panes to first and second storeys and 9 panes to the third storey; second and third storey sillbands of painted stone; plain wedge lintels; hipped roof. INTERIOR: the interior could not be inspected fully, but features are noted to be intact. The hall has a panelled embrasure with shutters. The open-well open-string stair in Chinese style is similarly detailed to that in No.7 (qv) with 'Chinese Chippendale' balustrade, shaped brackets, curtail step with rose, swept rail, bolection panels to stairwell, probably of plaster, and a domed lantern. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the damaged rear garden wall is of coursed sandstone.

<2> Mel Morris Conservation, 2012, Heritage Impact Assessment: 10 & 11 Abbey Square, Chester, R4347 (Client Report). SCH8755.

An impact assessment, including two site visits, was undertaken in 2012 in advance of the proposed conversion of 10 and 11 Abbey Street, both Grade II* listed buildings, into the University Cathedral Free School for primary aged children. The assessment considered Nos 10 and 11 as separate buildings although, currently, they are joined together.

The description for No. 11 is as follows: It contains its principal staircase hall which is of national importance and outstanding. The space has survived unaffected by alterations and is largely as designed in 1755. The other rooms are of less significance and contain interiors which have been altered to differing levels. Approximately 90% of the windows have been remodelled and perhaps 50% of the fireplaces. The building, significantly, retains a large part of its original floor plan, however, other original features within the rooms have been lost through later phases of remodelling in the nineteeenth and twentieth centuries, including alterations at first and second floor level to create cellular hostel rooms.

<3> Nexus Heritage, 2012, 10 and 11 Abbey Square, Chester: Archaeological Assessment, R4348 (Client Report). SCH8756.

An archaeological desk-based assessment was produced in 2012 for land at Abbey Square, Chester, in advance of proposed re-development of the Grade II* listed buildings, Numbers 10 & 11 Abbey Square, (see sources 2 and 4).

The site was considered to have good potential to contain multi period archaeological remains, including those of Roman and later date, although the construction of the current buildings are likely to have impacted the survival of remains. Additionally, the ground level in the garden of No. 10 Abbey Square appears to have been reduced, which also may have impacted earlier deposits.

<4> Mel Morris Conservation, 2012?, 10 and 11 Abbey Square, Chester: Historic Development & Phase Plans, R4349 (Client Report). SCH8757.

Report detailing the historic development, including phase plans, of Numbers 10 & 11 Abbey Square in advance of proposed redevelopment (see also sources 2 and 3), and produced considering map evidence, other documentary sources and also physical evidence.

One of the documents consulted includes a documentary history of the buildings written by Sister Kate, in 1975, one of the sisters of the Community of the Holy Name who were then incumbents of 'The Retreat House' (Numbers 10 & 11 Abbey Street). This discusses the earlier history of the area/buildings, and also the twentieth century history, including alterations made to the buildings during this period.

The map evidence for the buildings dates back to the early seventeenth century, Abbey Square was the Great Court of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Werburgh and is illustrated on the Randall Holme's plan of the Abbey of 1626. The Court contained the domestic buildings of the Abbey and on the north side of the Great Court were located a row of buildings identified on the Holme's plan as the brewery and bakehouse. The dissolution of St. Werburgh's Abbey in 1541 and the conversion of the monastic church into the cathedral made little initial difference to the form of Abbey Court. According to Sister Kate, the members of the Chapter of Chester Cathedral for many centuries, were reluctant to live in the Precinct and most sub-let their houses. Also, according to Sister Kate and ecclesiastical documentary sources, the monastic bakehouse may have become a Prebendary's house from 1623. Based on this evidence, it seems that there was a house on the north side of Abbey Square from 1623, but its precise footprint and location is not known. According to Sister Kate, after 1694 the house in Abbey Court was divided into two separate dwellings.

In March 1754, the old brewery buildings on the North side of the Square were leased to Thomas Prescott, Rober Taylor, and his son, Mascie Taylor. The monastic buildings were pulled down and the new dwelling houses built in their place, the present No's 7, 8, 9 and 10 Abbey Square. Similarly, the lease of the pair of brick houses was given to Roger Barnston; in February 1755, the Dean and Chapter granted Barnston a new lease on the understanding that he would build 'one good handsome brick house on the premises… in the place and stead of the said two messuages…which are grown old and in Decay'. This Barnston did and the house that he built in Abbey Square (the current No. 11) was occupied after his death in 1782 by his widow and other family members until 1835. However, although Barnston undertook to demolish both of the earlier seventeenth century houses, he seems to have retained a small part of the rear house and incorporated it into the service wing of the new house. There is some physical evidence for the seventeenth century building in the rear service block of No.11, this includes a king post truss and a single moulded transverse beam. The truss is roughly equidistant from two internal masonry walls, suggesting that at least one bay of the seventeenth house survives.

In 1849 the Dean and Chapter acquired the lease on No.11 Abbey Square for the purpose of creating a Residence House for the canons; the name 'Canon's Residence' appears of the 1875 Town Plan of Chester. The most famous Canon to reside at the House was Charles Kingsley who was incumbent from 1869-1872. He is commemorated by a blue plaque on the front of the building. By 1919, the Canon's Residence was redundant and the building became the temporary home of Bishop Henry Luke Paget and, thereafter, by Dr Josep Bridge, the Cathedral organist, until 1925. The final chapter of the history for No.11 came in 1926 when it opened as a Retreat House.

The Retreat House had twenty beds for those visiting at times of ordination, for meetings and conferences within the Cathedral. Main alterations at this time was the provision of first floor bathrooms, the additions of partitions at first and second floor level, to create bedrooms., the removal of walls of the sitting room and a store room to create a large refectory and the conversion of the dining room into a chapel, with the adjoining pantry becoming the sacristy. In 1931, the ground floor of No.10 was leased and connected to No.11 to enlarge the Retreat, providing an extra sitting room, dining room, and a bed-sitting room and bathroom for Retreat Conductors.

During the Second World War the Retreat House was used to house evacuee children, then a guest house and student accommodation for students evacuated from a London C of E training college. Following the war, the buildings reverted to use as a Retreat House.