Source/Archive record SCH8742 - 105-109 Foregate Street, Chester: Historic Building Report

An historic building survey was undertaken in July 2019 in advance of proposals to construct a new hotel on the site of the former Argos building, dating to 1991, which occupies the site of earlier eighteenth/nineteenth century properties, 105-109 Foregate Street, Chester (CH1 1HE). The proposed scheme seeks to demolish the existing two to three storey retail building on the site and construct a new three storey hotel with fourth floor accommodation within the roof structure. The investigation has comprised historical research, using both archival and secondary material, and a site inspection. The current building at 105-109 Foregate Street is unlisted and entirely modern (dating from the 1990s) and replaced the previous Georgian or early Victorian buildings on the site. Whilst it loosely mimicks the form, massing, style and materials of the historic buildings it is of no intrinsic merit and makes a neutral contribution to the significance of the conservation area and does not detract from the setting of nearby listed buildings. The building sits within the eastern section of the Foregate Street Character Zone, at the eastern end of sub-zone F1 (Foregate Street) and adjacent to sub-zone F3 (The Bars). To the north is the canal and zones G1 and G2 of the Canal Corridor Character Zone. The adjacent building at 113 Foregate Street is Grade II listed and to the rear (north east) is the Grade II listed Parker’s building tenements, both by local architect John Douglas. 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. 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-19th century.