23 And 25, White Friars

Nos. 23 and 25 White Friars, Chester

These two adjoining buildings, now in office use, have a complex history spanning from the 17th century to the present day. The east gabled part of No. 23 dates to the 17th century and has been altered; the west part of No. 23 and all of No. 25 probably formed a pair of early 18th-century town houses, which were converted into one building in 1753. Medieval cellars beneath survive but are truncated from the 18th century or later.

The buildings are constructed in brown brick: the 17th-century section uses irregular English garden wall bond, while the 18th-century portions use Flemish bond. Roofs are covered in grey slate. The 17th-century house displays a gable facing the street; the remainder have ridges parallel to the street.

Exterior

The 17th-century part to the east has two storeys with one window on each. The 18th-century part to the west rises to three storeys with five windows. The 17th-century house has a rendered plinth, an altered first storey with an inserted recessed bow window, and a second storey floor-band. The main window is a tripartite, nearly flush sash with no sill and a flattish basket-arched brick head, though most glazing bars have been removed. The parapet has plain stone coping leading to the gable.

The 18th-century houses also have a rendered plinth. No. 23 has a four-panel fielded door with plain overlight and a painted wedge lintel with cambered soffit; the window is a replaced four-pane recessed horned sash with exposed boxes. No. 25 has a replaced six-panel door with plain overlight set in an eared panelled timber doorcase with cornice and hood, together with an inserted recessed bowed window. The upper storey windows are set higher on the west side of the door to No. 25. All windows have painted stone sills and wedge lintels with cambered soffits.

The second storey features a painted floor-band and replaced horned sashes—two recessed and three flush—with the two to the west positioned higher. The third storey has a painted floor-band, five flush sashes (the centre one replaced and horned, the two to the west set higher), a central lead rainwater head and pipe inscribed "R:GA:1753", a painted stone cornice, and a west gable chimney in front of the ridge.

The rear elevation is in irregular bond brickwork and appears to be of 17th and early 18th-century date. The 17th-century portion has flattish basket-arched heads to one broad window opening on each storey. The 18th-century rear shows no features of special interest.

Interior

Each house has a cellar beneath. The cellar to No. 23 was not accessible for inspection, but that to No. 25 was partly filled or blocked from the 18th century or later. It retains part of the medieval sandstone rubble walls on the west and rear, and a wide stone stair. At the cellar entry to No. 23 is a door of three broad boards 16 millimetres thick on gudgeons, with indications of a former 17th-century panelled oak stair visible nearby.

On the first storey, a probable former inglenook in a front room of No. 23 now has a cast-iron beam. The rear wing has a corner fireplace and a back door of six fielded panels of early type, with a cross-boarded door on old long hinges. In No. 25 the hall has two basket archways and, in the passage to No. 23, two irregular archways, all with panelled pilasters. A back room has a panelled embrasure and plaster cornice.

The stair in No. 23 is renewed. The closed-string stair in No. 25 has a narrow well, panelled string, newels, three column-on-vase balusters per step, and a heavy moulded rail.

The second storey contains a two-panel fielded door and panelled embrasure in the east front room of No. 25. The west front room has benches and side-panels in embrasures, a two-panel door with architrave, and good plaster cornice. The back east room has a door of two fielded panels on the outer face and four fielded panels on the inner face, a wood fire-surround with carved pilasters and three carved frieze panels depicting a dairy farming scene between two swags, sub-panels to the embrasure, and a good plaster cornice.

The third storey front east room in No. 25 has a five-panel door. The rear room has a mid-18th-century fireplace with eared architrave and a carved swag frieze. The interior was inspected non-sequentially.