Source/Archive record SCH9669 - Heritage Impact Statement: No. 6-8 Watergate Street, and No. 4 Watergate Row, Chester

Heritage Impact Assessment produced in 2024 for No.6-8 Watergate Street and No. 4 Watergate Street Row. Formerly a townhouse with undercroft, and Rows level frontage. The building was in office use at the time of listing and more recently in use as Virgin Bank. It is presently used as a pop-up art gallery. The building has a primary frontage to Watergate Street, and a formal residential frontage to St Peter’s churchyard, the latter accessed via two alleys, one off Watergate Street Row and one off Northgate Street. The front elevation to Watergate Street has a character dating from the early 19th century, a modern shopfront of traditional character, and a modern Rows façade of no character. Internal features have been substantially remodelled in the mid to late 20th century. It has a mid-18th century appearance to the rear elevation. The building was first listed in 1955 and resurveyed in 2003. The building’s significance is derived from its evidential, historic, aesthetic, and communal significance as a Georgian town house that has been substantially remodelled internally and to Rows level in the 1970’s. The building was erected or remodelled at a time of economic growth in Chester. The original remodelling/rebuilding in the 18th century was in response to fashionable architectural trends, expressed in a clear and simple architectural vocabulary dating from the Georgian period. Of historical interest is the remnants of the historic masonry below street level, in an assumed undercroft. Also of importance is its relationship with, and evolution with, the Rows. It has a strong relationship and context to the wider streetscape within a tight knit grain that contributes to group value, views, and vistas; and its historical and aesthetic value helps define its sense of place.