St Werburgh Row and Clemence House

St Werburgh Row and Clemence House, Chester

A range of shops and offices built in 1935, designed by Maxwell Ayrton for the Hodkinson Trustees, probably of the late G.E. Hodkinson. The building is constructed of rendered brick, yellow sandstone, granite, brick and reinforced concrete with a Westmorland green slate roof, its main ridge running parallel to the street frontage. The style is free classical.

The building steps in height from south to north: one storey at the south end, three storeys in the central portion, and two storeys at the north. The principal feature is a recessed fourteen-bay colonnade across the front, with slightly fluted Roman Doric columns of pebbly concrete set on plain square plinths.

At the south end, three bays curve outward with the roof, which is hipped at the terminal end and carried on the curved colonnade. The next three bays rise to three storeys and are topped by two separate front gables, the northern of which sweeps down to the eaves of the two-storey portion. The north end connects to Clemence House.

The ground floor displays varied shopfronts. The south shop occupies three bays with two windows, each featuring one large pane beneath the transom and four small panes above. Its round-arched doorway in a black wall has four flush panels with incised margins. The next four bays combine offices and shops with modern plate-glass doors and frameless square-bay windows in granite surrounds. There follows a brick bay with round-arched double doors, each leaf having four flush panels with incised margins, then a further four office-and-shop bays in plate glass and granite. The two northernmost bays contain a shop with a varnished timber and glass front, a small-pane door, and a similar window in the north return. This return terminates against a projecting buttressed sandstone wall containing a hollow-chamfered round archway leading to Clemence House's forecourt. The wall rises to form a gabled stepped parapet at the north-west end of the roof. The buttress face is inscribed "G.E.H. 1935" and "Maxwell Ayrton Architect".

The colonnade features a scarf-jointed bressumer, stop-chamfered cross-beams and square joists. The upper storey casements, each of six panes, stand proud of the wall face on shaped timber brackets. The second storey displays a two-light casement flanked by a pair of 2-3-2 light mullioned casements in the three-storey section, and three similar 2-3-2 light casements in the two-storey portion. The third storey has a composite window of one, two and one lights between paired 1-3-1 light casements, each positioned beneath one of the front gables.

A rendered brick two-flue chimney stands behind the three-storey ridge. The roof valleys are swept, and square rainwater pipes form a feature of the upper storeys, though they are taken internally behind the colonnade.

The front of Clemence House and its link-wall to St Werburgh Row are of yellow sandstone, toothed into the rendered return of the Row's north end. The link wall includes a cast-iron gate in a round-arched entry to the rear access way. The entrance to Clemence House itself is set within a broader hollow-chamfered round archway. The second storey of this section has a three-light window with chamfered mullions and transom, topped by basket-arched upper lights.

The rear wall of St Werburgh Row, constructed of yellow brick, is featureless, as is the altered rear portion of Clemence House, which is of no particular interest.

The interiors are not of special interest. Occupying a prominent position facing the Cathedral Close, this building is a significant piece of townscape in its composition and architectural detailing.