Number 28 Row Number 30 Street

Number 30 Bridge Street and 28 Bridge Street Row West

This building comprises a former undercroft, Row and townhouse rebuilt around 1900 on the site of an earlier building known as The Harp and Crown public house. Historical records describe The Harp and Crown as being 'next to Common-Hall Lane' in 1751, and in 1707 Thomas Heath petitioned to 'build a shop in the Row before the Harp and Crown Inn'. Mid-19th century illustrations show an enclosed Row structure at this location.

In 1873, Chester architect John Douglas produced plans and designs for a new building here and recorded the earlier structure, which was notable for a large chamber on the Row stallboard next to Commonhall Street. Douglas (1830-1911) was prolific across the region and known for his 'Old English' style of half-timbered domestic work. Although these designs were not executed, more modest proposals, possibly by Douglas and Minshull (Douglas' partner from 1889), were approved in 1899 and built in 1900.

Prior to and after reconstruction, the building was at least partly occupied by The Grotto Public House, which by 1940 was known as The Grotto Hotel. By the later 1970s the undercroft and Row were used as shops, and in the 1980s the building became a branch of Liberty's of London. These later occupations involved a new shopfront and complete remodelling of the interior, with the exception of the cellars. The front to Bridge Street, featuring a carved bressumer above the Row opening with capitals that are slightly out of true, may in part be a reconstruction rather than entirely new work. It is unique for its period in central Chester in being no taller than the building it replaced. The structure is constructed of painted sandstone and brick, with timber framing and plaster panels, covered by a grey slate roof hipped to the south and to the rear.

The building is three storeys tall, including an undercroft and Row level, plus cellars beneath.

The undercroft features a street-level shopfront with stone piers and a 1980s doorway in an older recessed porch to the south, with double part-glazed doors, sidelights and a leaded overlight. There is a two-pane shop-window with leaded glazing above the transom and a similar window of one pane in the canted corner with Commonhall Street. Ten stone steps and one wooden step lead up to the Row at the south.

At Row level, the Row front displays turned wooden balusters and a moulded rail, stone piers with capitals carrying the third-storey bressumer, and a stone newel post at the head of the steps, all with roll-moulded arrises. The stallboard, measuring 2 metres from front to back, formerly had an enclosed northern bay used as a barber's shop. The Row walk is boarded. The shopfront to the rear of the Row walk is of black-painted brickwork with double doors and shop-windows, similar to those at street level. An S-shaped flight of steps, replaced in concrete, leads to Commonhall Street, and to the north a 1970s concrete footbridge provides access to the adjacent Row (number 26 Bridge Street Row West). The ceiling above the Row and stallboard is plastered. A tall, shaped bracket supports the jettied third storey at the corner.

The northern part of the timber-framed third storey has a jettied front gable, similar to the previous building on this site. The panels beneath and to the sides of the windows in the front gable are shaped. There are two three-light casement windows in the gabled section and one in the southern bay. The gable has slightly curved herringbone gable struts, bargeboards and a finial, with a ridge chimney.

The face to Commonhall Street behind the Row steps is painted brick up to the bottom of the Row level and timber-framed above with S-curved braces. The informal window-pattern includes a curved oriel.

The cellar probably dates in its present form from 1900. There are no visible features from before the 1970s in the upper storeys.