House of Shelter is a Grade II listed building in the Cheshire West and Chester local planning authority area, England. First listed on 23 July 1998. Almshouse.
House of Shelter
- WRENN ID
- solemn-rampart-jet
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Cheshire West and Chester
- Constituency
- Chester North and Neston MP: Samantha Dixon (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 23 July 1998
- Type
- Almshouse
- Address
- House of Shelter, 4, Vicars Lane
- OS grid reference
- SJ 409 662
- Coordinates
- 53.18974, -2.88575
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The House of Shelter is an almshouse that has been converted into a land agent's office. It was built between 1889 and 1890 by the architect John Douglas for the first Duke of Westminster. The building features stone-dressed red brick with blue diapering and has a red tile roof. It is two stories tall and has three bays, creating an almost symmetrical appearance.
Access is via a stone step leading to a framed and boarded door, which is set in a basket-arched stone-dressed opening with wrought-iron hinges. To the left of the door, there is a similarly styled opening containing a mullioned two-light leaded casement, with the arch dated 1889. Flanking this are two mullioned and transomed three-light leaded casements.
On the first floor, a stone band rises three courses above the door and central window. There are three stone-dressed cross-casements in slightly projecting stone cases, each featuring blank tracery in round arches, and these are topped with gabled half-dormers that have shaped copings and finials. The building also has a plinthed chimney with three separated barleysugar flues made of moulded brick on each end gable. The right end and the rear of the building are simply detailed. The interior has not been inspected.
Local climate
House of Shelter receives an average of 890 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 66% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 78% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 62% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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