Numbers 51 And 53 Street Numbers 59 And 59A Row

Undercroft and town house, now comprising two small offices in the undercroft and a shop at Row level and above, with a separate shop probably formerly a cottage behind, occupying a medieval burgage plot. The earliest visible features date from the 16th and 17th centuries. The buildings were refaced to Bridge Street and partly rebuilt in 1858 by architect James Harrison, with further alterations in the 20th century. The mock timber framing of the front represents an instance of Vernacular Revival as distinct from Gothick applied to Gothic Revival—described as the clearest example of its kind in Chester. The roof is grey slate with a gable to the front.

The undercroft features a recessed central porch triangular in plan, with an angled door to each half-width office. The north office has an end-pilaster and an altered door, probably from 1858, while the south office has a modern front. The Row front has partly-rendered brick end-piers with simple mild-steel stick balusters and rail. A sloping boarded stallboard extends 2.1 metres from front to back, with a flagged Row walk and a 20th-century oak and glass shopfront. A south passage to the rear has a replaced part-glazed door. Cusped timber brackets on stone corbels carry a Row-front bressumer with chamfer moulding stopped in the manner of No. 40 Row.

The third storey displays a central five-light canted oriel on a rendered corbel similarly detailed to that on No. 40 Bridge Street and Row, with lights having two-pane sashes with cusped arches to the heads and a hipped oriel roof of slate. The timber framing is planted with cusped edges to every component. The centre rail to each side of the oriel has a saltire-braced panel beneath and above. The gable above the oriel has framing like an eight-spoked wheel with two mouchettes to each side. Ornate shaped bargeboards are cusped and pierced with two pairs of mouchettes, with a damaged drop finial.

The interior shows that partial rebuilding in 1858 and 20th-century linings may conceal structural elements of the 17th century or earlier. The short undercroft, now divided into two offices, is wholly lined. At Row level, timber posts in each sidewall of the southern passage, some in the north sidewall now covered, indicate that at least since the 17th century the great hall had a side gallery. Surfaces at Row level within the shop are covered. At third storey level, the vertical surfaces and balustrade of the south gallery are probably from 1858, with some later alterations. The front chamber above the Row contains an antiquarian collection of oak timbers, probably from elsewhere in the building, fixed as if timber framing on the south wall. The floor of the chamber, also forming the ceiling to the Row, was probably raised in 1858. The truss above a plastered partition between chamber and hall is largely covered. Above the hall the first tie-beam, now plastered, is visible, and the rear truss has an exposed cambered tie-beam and principal rafters morticed for angle braces, now removed, and a windbrace to the north purlin. Surfaces of the former rear cottage are almost wholly covered, though some visible beams and joists of oak suggest a pre-18th-century origin.

The building corresponds with the reference to James Harrison's buildings in Bridge Street quoted from The Builder volume 16, page 269, dated 17 April 1858: "A shop in Bridge Street Row is also to have timber work characteristic of Chester in the fourteenth century. Mr Harrison is architect of both buildings."