Sedan House

This is a late 18th-century town house, now used as barristers' chambers, located on Stanley Place in Chester. The building is constructed of Flemish bond brown brick with a grey slate roof, hipped at the corner where it meets City Walls Road.

The Stanley Place facade features a stone plinth and three storeys, with two recessed sash windows on each level. The first floor windows have four panes each, the second floor windows twelve panes each, and the third floor windows six panes each. The windows have painted stone sills and cambered, gauged brick heads. A small cornice runs along the top. Two shared chimneys are visible to the east, one on the roof slope and one at the rear.

The City Walls Road facade has a raised stone pavement with a weathered sandstone post marked “B…” on its south face. A prominent, full-height pedimented bay contains a unique projecting sedan-chair porch; the only known example in north-west England. The porch features a sash window with nine panes, set within a pedimented aedicule, above a sedan-chair door of four fielded panels above two flush panels on each return. Stone steps lead to the north and south doors, designed for sedan-chairmen to enter and depart. The north wing's first storey has a recessed 12-pane sash. A door, replacing a former window, to No.13B contains a six-pane sash as an overlight. Recessed 12-pane sashes are present in the north wing, along with a blocked sash and two four-pane sashes to the south wing. The third storey has six-pane sashes, one blocked, in the north wing, one in the centre bay, and three (one blocked) in the south wing. A substantial chimney is situated against the rear gable end.

Inside, the sedan-chair porch has a door of four fielded panels above two flush panels, leading to a basket archway under the staircase. The west room on Stanley Place contains two six-panel doors and panelled shutters. The east room on Stanley Place has large panels beneath the dado rail, with a damaged cornice. The south-east room, and others throughout the building, features a six-panel door and simple cornices. The open-string open-well staircase has shaped brackets, a curtail step, plinthed stick balusters, and a swept rail with a wreath. A secondary staircase in No.13B has diminishing and tapered newels and stick balusters, with enclosed strings. The west room on the second floor facing Stanley Place has one panelled embrasure with shutters. An archway with pilasters leads from the stair-well to the east room facing Stanley Place, which also has a panelled embrasure with shutters.

The building is designated II* group value, recognizing the rare survival of the sedan-chair porch.