122, Foregate Street

This is an office building, now a shop, dating from 1902. Designed by John Douglas for the Prudential Assurance Ltd, it stands on the corner of Foregate Street and Bath Street in Chester. The building is constructed of tooled, squared snecked red sandstone rubble, with a red clay tile roof. The design incorporates Douglas’s distinctive Germanic style, reminiscent of the 17th century.

The exterior presents two storeys plus a loft in the roof. The corner entrance features a porch with four-panel double doors set within a basket-arched opening supported by panelled pilasters. The doors have leaded glazing in the upper panels, and inner double doors with glazed upper panels above smaller lower panels. Octagonal shafts at each corner of the porch support the first floor on consoles. A keystone adorns the porch arch, with small leaded lights on either side. Foregate Street displays a round-arched window flanked by basket-arched windows, featuring pilasters and moulded voussoirs. Bath Street has two basket-arched windows, an eight-panelled door in a round-arched opening, and a pair of recessed sash windows with one pane over six panes. A balustrade-capped stone screen connects the building with No. 1 Bath Street. The first floor has a stone-mullioned tripartite sash, with one pane to the lower sections and six panes to the upper sections, over the angled front of the porch. The Foregate Street elevation features a rhythm of 2, 3, and 3 windows, while Bath Street displays a rhythm of 3, 2, 2, and 2. A continuous moulded sillband, frieze, and cornice run along the facade. The Chester City coat of arms is positioned above the porch-bay windows.

A Baroque-shaped gable accommodates a pair of leaded lights, volutes, and an obelisk finial above the porch-bay. A similar, but larger, gable above the outer bay in Foregate Street has a pair of one-over-six pane sashes within a pedimented case. Cast brackets support a rainwater pipe dated 1902. The Bath Street face mirrors this feature, with a cartouche above the outer pair of sashes. Another gable over the outer bay features round-headed loops, coping, and a short finial. Lead-clad lucarnes with finials are present on both street-facing roof slopes. Two red-brick chimneys are visible. The south end of the building is constructed of stone-banded brown brick, featuring a small-pane mullioned and transomed casement under a segmental-arched head with a stone key.

The interior of the building has not been inspected.