Number 1 Row Number 2-8 Street Numbers 1 And 3 Street Numbers 2-6 And 8 (Part) Row

A substantial corner block of six townhouses constructed in 1892, comprising shops and an undercroft at street level with a Row running behind, and residential and commercial accommodation above. The building was commissioned by Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, First Duke of Westminster, a major Chester landowner and property developer, with designs by Thomas Meakin Lockwood, the city's principal architect of the period. Lockwood's work established the Vernacular Revival style as dominant in Chester's late 19th-century architectural development.

The block replaces earlier structures on the site of medieval 'Staven Selds', including an early 19th-century brick building. The opposing corner building at number 1 Bridge Street, constructed by Grosvenor in 1888 to similar designs by Lockwood, survives as a comparable example of his work. The shopfronts and interiors were substantially altered during the 20th and early 21st centuries. The Row and upper floors are now occupied as a hotel with individual shop units at street level.

The building is constructed of yellow sandstone and red Ruabon brick with blue diapering, flanked by timber framing with plaster panels, and roofed in brown clay tile.

The exterior comprises four storeys including the street-level undercroft and Row. There are four bays to Bridge Street and three to Watergate Street, with a canted corner at the street junction incorporating stone steps to the Row.

To either side of the corner, the two bays on each street are faced in ashlar stone for the lower two storeys with stone-dressed brick above. At Row level, these bays feature an arcade with one round and one elliptical arch to Bridge Street and two elliptical arches to Watergate Street, all with Renaissance-style architraves, moulded bands, pediments and cartouches. At eaves level, there is one Dutch gable to each street.

The third bay to Watergate Street, the fourth storey of the second bay to Bridge Street, and the upper two storeys of the third and fourth bays to Bridge Street are timber-framed with close studding of oak, jetties to each storey, and herringbone struts to the gable featuring a richly carved frieze, console brackets and grotesque heads. At number 3 Watergate Street, an oak-framed hip-roofed porch at Row level shelters an S-shaped stair to the street.

The Row openings to numbers 2 and 4 Bridge Street have splat balusters, whilst those to the other bays have wooden turned vase balusters, all painted. The shopfronts are largely modern to both streets and to number 2 Bridge Street Row. Five Row casement windows, partly leaded, and four part-glazed panelled doors in panelled cases are present.

Windows to the bays with brick upper storeys have moulded stone surrounds, mullions and transoms. The timber-framed bays feature oriel windows, some with round-arched middle lights. All windows are leaded. Cast-iron rainwater-heads, pipes and brackets are present, along with a wrought-iron sign bracket to each street; that to Watergate Street incorporates a bronze eagle's head.

The interiors have been substantially altered. An open-well stair survives in number 6 Bridge Street, together with some original fireplaces, six-panel doors and cornices.