44, Lower Bridge Street

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4065NE LOWER BRIDGE STREET 595-1/6/234 (West side) 10/01/72 No.44

GV II

Town house, now shop, office and studio. C17 or earlier core and front probably 1717, when the Row was enclosed. stone-dressed Flemish bond brown brick; grey slate with front gable set back behind parapet. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys. The shopfront has a replaced 2-pane glazed door and shop window in a rendered surround probably of stone; timber modillion cornice; old stone end-piers, the north one rendered, rise through first and second storeys, formerly undercroft and Row. The second, third and fourth storeys have 2 flush sashes, each with painted stone sills and wedge lintels of 12 square panes to second storey, 16 panes to the third storey and 9 panes to the fourth storey. The end-piers are unbonded through the lower two storeys, but the third and fourth storeys have rusticated quoins. Parapet with simple coping. INTERIOR: the first and second storeys have chamfered cross-beams of oak. A dogleg closed-string oak stair with square newels, 2 substantial barleysugar balusters per step, moulded straight rectangular rails and dado of fielded panels. The third storey front room has 2 chamfered oak beams and a corner chimney-breast; the rear room has an oak beam. The open-well stair to the fourth storey is detailed similarly to that below. The fourth storey has 2 exposed cross-beams. (Chester Rows Research Project: Grenville J: Lower Bridge Street West: 1988-).

Listing NGR: SJ4058465970