Chester Visitor Centre

CHESTER CITY (EM)

SJ4066 LITTLE ST JOHN STREET 1932-1/6/186 (North side) Chester Visitor Centre

GV II

St John's School, now Chester Visitor Centre. Founded 1810 by Robert Earl Grosvenor, rebuilt 1882-3 by his grandson ER Robson for the first Duke of Westminster. Stone-dressed hard red brick; hipped red-brown tile roofs. EXTERIOR: expressed as 3 storeys plus attic to front, facing St John's Church (qv), reducing the apparent scale, but 2 storeys plus attic to sides and rear. The front has unpierced end bays, each with a round-arched recessed panel with armorial device of stone, Grosvenor Arms and "W" to left and 3 mitres and 1883, right. The ground floor has 4 round-arched openings holding 2 stone cross-windows between 2 pairs of boarded double doors with dual overlights. Stone stringcourse beneath 4 pairs of 6-pane casements alternating with recessed stone panels; a stone apron below each end-panel holds a square 4-pane light. The second floor has a similar stone window-band, with slightly varied rhythm of casements and panels. 2 stone-dressed shaped attic gables, each with two 6-pane casements. Timber hexagonal belfry on ridge has cupola-roof, louvre band, lead finial, wind-vane. The sides and back are similarly expressed, but with simpler brick openings to tall classroom windows; dormer gables similar to those at front. INTERIOR: the structure is little altered but almost all surfaces are covered in mock timber framing.

Listing NGR: SJ4088466202