Diocesan House

SJ4066 1932-1/6/241

CHESTER CITY (EM), RAYMOND STREET (North side), No.10 Diocesan House

(Formerly Listed as: RAYMOND STREET, Harvest House)

10/01/72

II

Ellesmere Canal Company Offices and Canal Tavern, later Tarvin Rural District Council Offices and Chester Diocesan Offices. The front office portion probably 1790s; the rear wing formerly the tavern now part of offices, c1815. Painted stucco front; English garden wall bond brown brick to sides and rear; grey slate roof. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys to Raymond Street; symmetrical, with pedimented central bay and slightly-recessed wing of one bay to each side. The ground floor has a round-arched sash of 9-panes plus radial-bar fan in each bay; porch forming single-storey right wing has 5 stone steps to quarter-landing; 1 step to doorway in Tuscan case in side of main block. A rusticated round-arched opening to flight of 13 stone steps down to Tower Wharf forms a left wing. The main block has a first-floor band; a central 12-pane recessed sash with architrave, consoles and cornice; a tripartite 4;12;4 pane sash with architrave to each side-bay, that in west bay altered. Simple frieze and moulded cornice; central pediment. The east side is blank; the west side has 16-pane and 12-pane sashes. The rear, which was the front of the tavern, is symmetrical. Door of two rows of 3 flush panels in case with simple pilasters, frieze and Doric pediment; a recessed 12-pane sash to each side. Three 12-pane recessed sashes to the first and second floors. The east side of the former tavern has recessed sashes irregularly disposed. INTERIOR: has 6-panel doors, a main dogleg stair parallel with the front, winders in the apsidal end of the stair-well; open-string, shaped brackets, stick balusters and swept rail. The former office and tavern wings are combined; a dogleg stair formerly serving the tavern, simpler than the main stair. Some cornices.

Listing NGR: SJ4007466627