Number 41 Street Numbers 51 And 53 Row Bishop Lloyds House

Bishop Lloyd's House, Number 41 Street and Numbers 51 and 53 Row, Chester

This Grade I listed building comprises two medieval undercrofts beneath two town houses, now used as shops, meeting rooms and a flat. The structures were rebuilt in the early 17th century and underwent heavy restoration in the 1890s by architect Thomas Morton Lockwood. The buildings are constructed of sandstone with timber frames infilled with brick panels, carved oak and plaster, beneath slate roofs.

The exterior presents three storeys including Street and Row levels, plus an attic storey. Each tenement has a gable to the front and is symmetrical above the Row bressumers, displaying vernacular and Vernacular Revival character with some Classical detail. Number 53 (to the right) is dated 1615 and is associated with George Lloyd, Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1599 to 1605 and Bishop of Chester from 1605 until his death in 1615. Number 51 was refronted by Lockwood around 1890, reflecting the composition of Number 53.

On the front of the left undercroft and Number 51 Row, Lockwood replaced the Row stallboard with stone steps parallel with the street and a landing to the right, repositioning the Row-front posts supporting the chamber above. The steps have a wrought-iron railing, and the landing and Row feature an oak handrail on shaped splat balusters with a spiral-moulded colonnette below each end of the landing. The Row has a pier of stone and brick on the left, faced with a spiral-moulded colonnette on a corbel. At each end of the landing stands a late 19th-century Row post with a colonnette, behind which is a Jacobean post with brackets shaped as bearded giants, beasts and an owl; Lockwood added lighter brackets shaped as figures. The shopfront is modern. The bressumer above the Row slopes with the street and has dentil arris and a patterned face. The third storey is divided into three bays by oak pilasters of Jacobean classical form. Ten small panels separate the bressumer and the chamber window, which has two moulded mullions and two transoms in each bay, with shaped leaded glazing. Above the window is a band of plaster, then a slightly jettied tie-beam with dentil arris and criss-cross decoration. The three-light mullioned attic window stands proud of the small-framed gable. The bargeboards have carved cornices and an ornate bargepost.

On the front of the right undercroft and Number 53 Row, four piers at street level have spiral-moulded colonnettes to the front on carved-head corbels, with a central doorway flanked by inserted 18-pane bow windows. Above each pier is a late 19th-century Row post with a similar colonnette; Jacobean posts behind have bearded giants, beasts and an owl as brackets, with oak rail on shaped splat balusters. A modern shopfront occupies the Row. The bressumer to the Row has dentil arris and a richly patterned face. A row of eight recessed panels between the bressumer and chamber window displays the arms of James I with inscription, the arms of Sodor and Man and the date 1615, with three Biblical scenes to the left and two to the right. The tripartite chamber window has four oak pilasters of Classical derivation with two moulded mullions and a transom in each bay and shaped leaded glazing. The ornately-patterned jetty beam above the window has a carved-head bracket at each end. Between the jetty and tie-beam is a row of ten arched and carved panels with three panels to each side of the three-light attic window above; the subjects, largely beasts, appear heraldic. Above the window are small-framed plaster panels, the bargeboards have carved cornices, and the bargepost is ornate. All windows were heavily restored or replaced by Thomas Lockwood in the 1890s.

The two undercrofts have probably medieval walls of coursed rubble sandstone with brick barrel-vaults, likely dating to the 18th century. At Row level in the east house, most surfaces are covered, with full-height panels in the east wall and two chamfered cross-beams with covered surfaces. The west house, with modern brick partitions, has no visible features of interest. The stair to the third storey has a Chinese-influenced balustrade with vase-splat balusters to the landing and a strapwork plaster ceiling with a Classical cornice over the landing, cloakroom and ladies' lavatory.

The east chamber has a broad oak door of two rows of three panels on large HL hinges, oak bolection-moulded fielded panels arranged in a row below dado and a tall row above, and a fire surround with entablature and prominent keystone on Doric columns. The panelled overmantel of plaster or stone displays eagles in a curved broken entablature, with an iron fireplace and a frieze to the west wall featuring running foliar decoration. The plaster ceiling contains oval, square and lozenge panels with raised decoration. An eight-panel door on HL hinges provides access to the west chamber.

The west house has a landing-window and altered six-panel double doors to the chamber by Lockwood, with small-framing and fragments of tie-beam and rafter visible at the junction between the two houses. The chamber features a vigorously-expressed 17th-century fireplace and overmantel of incorrectly Classical form, having an arched central panel with a Cupid riding a lion in an Arcadian setting. Three chamfered beams, the front and middle ones moulded, sit on decorated corbels to the west, with a small frieze to the east and a vigorous frieze with sea-monsters to the west, partly hidden by small-panelling. A recess with a repositioned oak lintel lies south of the fireplace. The ceiling contains moulded plaster panels.

The flat in the attic storey (Number 51A) provides access to the stair, now bolted off from the third storey. The stair comprises three flights with closed string, fluted square newels and two balusters with spiral-moulded shafts on vases per step, carrying a heavy swept handrail, all of oak with softwood steps probably inserted. The portion of the flat above Number 51 has plain steeply-pitched principal rafters, purlins and a diagonally-set ridge, all of oak, carrying through from front to rear gable; the floor plan has been altered. The portion above Number 53 contains a front and middle chamber, a stair bay and a closet (now bathroom) with an extension for the present stair at the rear. An arch-braced truss between the front and middle chambers, now partly filled with small-framing, suggests a former open hall or upper hall. The chamfered purlins have 17th-century decorated plaster covering, and the ceilings of the chambers, stair-bay and closet have reeded plaster margins and 17th-century character plaster decorative moulded features.