Number 39 Street

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SJ4066SE 595-1/4/68

CHESTER CITY (IM) BRIDGE STREET No 39

(Formerly Listed as: BRIDGE STREET AND ROW (East side) No.39 Street, previously listed as BRIDGE STREET No 39 Street & No 45 Row (formerly listed as No 45A Row))

28/07/55

GV I

Number 39 Bridge Street comprises a medieval undercroft, now a café, which was incorporated into a Neo-Jacobean style brick building designed by Edward Hodkinson and erected in 1864 for the landowner, the second Marquis of Westminster - the Row level and the upper storeys have a separate entry on the National Heritage List for England.

Originally 4.2 metres high and 14.5m long, the undercroft was built over part of a C2 AD Roman bath house and seems likely to have been one of Bridge Street’s C14 ‘selds’, or a one-product market, which were often a structure much bigger than a single shop or stall. Although the insertion of a floor at street level in 1864 subdivided and reduced its height, the undercroft retains features dating to around 1300. In 2022, it was occupied by a café. The undercroft is constructed of squared sandstone rubble and painted brickwork.

EXTERIOR: the café, which is accessed from the street, has a floor which was inserted in 1864, with the cellar beneath it comprising a tall medieval undercroft, that was perhaps used as a seld. The west cellar wall contains Roman bath-house masonry. The north and east cellar and café walls have C12 to C13 squared rubble sandstone masonry. An opening through the north wall, towards the east end, leads down eight steps, now concrete, to the undercroft which was formerly at the rear of number 37 Bridge Street. Its floor and lower walls are of bedrock. Towards the north is a rock-cut sump, probably medieval, which is fed with water. It has a timber rail on column-on-vase balusters which probably date to 1864. There are some oak beams and joists.

A rebated medieval doorway to the east leads to the remains of a Roman hypocaust which was perhaps restored when it was found during the redevelopment of the building in 1864. There are 27 surviving square, waisted columns in a rectangular chamber which formerly contained four rows of eight columns. There is a large four-course stone corbel and a smaller corbel to each side in the east wall of the café.

Listing NGR: SJ4055766172