4-10, CITY ROAD

This is a row of four shops with living accommodation above, built in 1932 by T.M. Lockwood. The building is located on City Road, Chester. It is constructed of buff sandstone with timber framing, plaster panels, and hard red brick, topped by a red-brown clay tile roof with four gables running parallel to City Road.

The exterior consists of three storeys. Ashlar piers mark the ends and separate the shops; wrought-iron gates provide access to the entrances of numbers 2 and 6. Recessed entrances are present, with single-pane side windows; the entrance to number 8 has been altered. The shops and offices have single-pane windows to the front. A painted timber console supports the overhanging second storey at each pier. The bressumer (a beam supporting a jetty) is deeply moulded and carved where it carries four mullioned and transomed four-light oriels with leaded glazing and shaped panes. The oriels at numbers 2 and 8 are canted, while those at numbers 4 and 6 are bowed. Above the transom level, glazing extends between the oriels across the heads of close-studded timber framing. The third storey is also overhanging, supported by consoles, and features a row of small-framed panels with alternating shaped and herringbone bracing. Each gable has a five-light casement window with leaded glazing and shaped panes; those at numbers 2 and 8 are canted, and those at numbers 4 and 6 are bowed. Small-framed panels flank each casement, and jettied collars above are inscribed with "AD:1900" on those at numbers 6 and 4. The herringbone struts on numbers 4 and 6 are curved in an S-shape. A rainwater head carved as a face is located between numbers 6 and 8. The building is finished with moulded bargeboards, drop-finials with castellated heads, a stone-dressed brick chimney on each end-gable and two on the ridge. The south gable of number 2 reveals timber framing behind brickwork, and the north end of number 8, which was previously attached to another building, is rendered. The rear of the building has no features of particular interest. The front elevation is considered to be one of T.M. Lockwood’s most successful half-timbered designs. The interiors were not inspected. In July 1990, the upper storeys of all properties and the first storey of numbers 4 and 6 were vacant.