Sedan House

SJ4066SW 595-1/3/369 28/07/55

CHESTER CITY (IM) STANLEY PLACE (South side)

Nos.13 AND 13B Sedan House (Formerly Listed as: STANLEY PLACE Nos 1-9 (consec), No 10 & Nos 11-14 (consec))

II*

GV

Town house, now barristers' chambers. c1780. Flemish Bond brown brick with grey slate roof hipped to corner with City Walls Road. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; painted stone plinth. The face to Stanley Place has 2 recessed sashes to each storey, now of 4 panes to first storey, 12 panes to second storey and 6 panes to third storey; painted stone sills and slightly cambered painted gauged brick heads; small cornice; 2 shared chimneys east, one on roof slope and one at rear. The face to City Walls Road has a raised stone pavement with a weathered square sandstone post lettered B... on its south face. The full-height pedimented central bay has an added projecting sedan-chair porch, said to be the only example in north-west England, with a 9-pane sash in a pedimented aedicule to front, a cornice and 4-course stone-capped parapet and a sedan-chair door of 4-fielded panels above 2 flush panels in each return face; stone steps, one to the north door, 2 to the south: the Chair-men entered and departed by opposite doors, their passenger embarking or alighting under cover at the house door between. The first storey has a 12-pane recessed sash in the north wing, a door of 6 fielded panels to No.13B in a former window opening using the 6-pane upper sash leaf as an overlight and 2 recessed 12-panes sashes to the north wing, one of 16 panes to the central bay, a blocked sash and 2 now of 4 panes to the south wing. The third storey has 6-pane sashes, one blocked, in the north wing, one in the centre bay and 3, one blocked, in the south wing; a massive chimney against the rear gable-end; rainwater head and pipe. INTERIOR: door from the sedan porch is of 4 fielded panels above 2 flush panels, in a basket archway under the stair; the west room to Stanley Place has two 6-panel doors, panelled shutters in one embrasure and a simple cornice; the east room to Stanley Place has large panels beneath the dado rail, now partly covered, and a damaged cornice; the south-east room has

a 6-panel door and a simple cornice; details are largely replaced in all storeys of the south wing. The open-string open-well stair has shaped brackets, curtail step, plinthed stick balusters and swept rail with wreath. The secondary stair, in No.13B, has diminishing and tapered newels and stick balusters; the strings are enclosed. The second storey west room facing Stanley Place has one panelled embrasure with shutters; archway with pilasters from the stair-well to the east room facing Stanley Place which has a panelled embrasure with shutters; the south-east room has a 6-panel door and a panelled embrasure with shutters. The grade relates to the rare survival of a sedan-chair porch.

Listing NGR: SJ 40133 66258