20 and 22, Cuppin Street

Pair of town houses at 20 and 22 Cuppin Street, Chester, possibly formed by subdivision of a larger building. Early 18th century, altered. Built in brown brick in Flemish bond to the front elevation; each house has a grey slate roof with ridges running at right-angles to the street front.

The exterior comprises three storeys, each with two windows. Both houses have doorcases with plain pilasters and moulded pediments, and a painted plinth of rendered stone. Two stone steps lead to each door at No.20; those at No.22 are covered. No.20 retains a six-fielded-panel door with a plain overlight. No.22 has a replaced small-panel door with plain overlight. On the first storey, No.20 has a recessed replaced horned tripartite sash with no glazing bars; No.22 has a replaced flush two-pane horned sash. The second storey contains two replaced two-pane horned recessed sashes to No.20 and two replaced horned flush two-pane sashes to No.22, though the sash-boxes are original. The third storey has two replaced recessed two-pane horned sashes to No.20 and a flush sash with glazing bars removed to No.22. Each upper storey is marked by a three-course brick floor-band. No.20 has a three-course band at the base of a plain parapet. No.22 has a one-course band oversailing two courses beneath a parapet with brick pilasters and panels of late 17th-century appearance, with a cornice above. An ornate mid-19th-century cast-iron rainwater head is present on the front. The front gable of No.22 is visible above the parapet.

Interior to No.20: the cellar is said to be partly barrel-vaulted in brick with brick walls containing rectangular sinkings. The hall has a blocked archway, probably formerly connecting to No.22, with detailing removed. The front room is largely refinished below frieze level, with an architrave to the embrasure and what appears to be a replaced round-arched marble fireplace; the cornice features a heavily-moulded ceiling-band with a plaster rose. The dogleg stair has newels with pendants, a closed string, three turned balusters of substantial section per step, and a heavy moulded rail dying against the newels of each flight, with swept skirting. The front second-storey room has most features removed or covered, though it retains a plaster cornice and rose. Doors throughout are replaced four-panelled examples of early 19th-century type.

Interior to No.22: the cellar has an east part barrel-vaulted in brick, with an oak post and longitudinal beam and post-and-rail construction supporting the stone stair, which appears late 17th century and features winders through 180 degrees. The entrance hall contains a round archway to the stair hall with panelled pilasters and a similar basket archway, now blocked, that formerly opened to No.20. The front room is panelled with one row of panels below a plain dado and a taller row above; it has a panelled overmantel but the fireplace has been removed, and retains a painted oak cornice and rose. The back room has a re-lined range recess and a boxed oak beam. The dogleg oak stair is considerably simpler than that in No.20 and appears late 17th century, though somewhat damaged. The second-storey front room has fielded dado panels with moulded rail, a round-arched marble fireplace, and an oak cornice. The third storey contains no visible features of special interest, although the roof is stated to feature oak purlins, flat rafters (some replaced), and an oak ridge-tree set diagonally.