Guildhall

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/3/419 (North side) 28/07/55 Guildhall (Formerly Listed as: WATERGATE STREET Guildhall)

GV II

Formerly known as: Holy Trinity Church WATERGATE STREET. Church, now Guildhall. 1865-9, rebuilt on the site of one of the City's 9 medieval parish churches to the design of James Harrison but completed after his death by Kelly and Edwards of Chester, in Geometrical Decorated style; converted to Guildhall early 1960s. Red sandstone; grey slate roofs. PLAN: continuous nave and chancel, west porch, detached south spire and porch, south priest's vestry. EXTERIOR: west window of 7 lights above gabled porch has Geometrical tracery; south aisle has traceried windows of 3 lights, and to east of 4 lights; 7-light east window has tracery similar to west window; the north aisle windows, blocked C20 to the nave, of 3 lights with tracery to the chancel and of 4 lights to east end; the clerestory has 2-light windows to the nave, paired lancets to the chancel. The spire has a 3-stage tower with oak-boarded double doors to east having blank tracery panels above with relief sculpture of Christ enthroned, under a gable moulding; a traceried 2-light window in the south wall. The second stage has a lancet and a clock face to the east and south; the third stage has traceried 2-light bell-openings; corner buttresses; pierced parapet; recessed octagonal stone spire with 3 lucarnes to each cardinal face, the lowest ones containing 2-light traceried windows. INTERIOR: stripped of most fittings and with inserted timber partitions east of the porch in the south aisle and in the chancel and its north aisle, has arcades of 6 nave bays and 2 chancel bays, with octagonal piers and corbelled clerestory shafts supporting arch-braced trusses; the chancel is differentiated only by a heavier truss on paired shafts. The glass in the east window depicts God, major Old Testament figures and saints, some associated with the diocese to Lichfield and Chester; the western window in the south aisle depicts Christ, Isiah and David; the former chancel screen is behind the partition of the east chamber; the reredos is concealed behind lightweight cladding beneath the east window. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Hubbard E: Cheshire:

Harmondsworth: 1971-; Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-: 103).

Listing NGR: SJ4031966246