Grosvenor Museum

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4065NW GROSVENOR STREET 595-1/5/197 (South East side) Grosvenor Museum

GV II

Museum. 1885. By TM Lockwood at expense of the first Duke of Westminster. Stone-dressed Ruabon red brick with steep red-tile roof. EXTERIOR: basement and 3 storeys; in TM Lockwood's manner, opulent. Plinth with band; 2 basement windows east of door and 2 to west. The round-arched entrance, east of centre, has 3 stone steps to landing with wrought-iron double gates, then 4 steps to glazed double doors and screen. The elaborate doorcase has composite pillars, that to west inscribed THIS STONE WAS LAID BY THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER FEBRUARY 3RD 1885; ornate moulded voussoirs and key; a Muse in each stone spandrel, one with a palette, the other with globe and compasses; ornate 2-panel frieze with Grosvenor and Chester City arms and date 1885, three stone-dressed cross-windows west of entrance and 2 transomed 1-light windows to east; stringcourse above lintels. The second storey has dentilled floor-string, 3 cross-windows west of the entrance, 3 separate rectangular lights above the doorcase and two 1-light transomed windows east; a stringcourse above the lintels carries the plinths of composite pilasters. The third storey has 3 cross-windows with double transoms west of the entrance. One above the entrance in a projecting panel on an ornate corbelled plinth; 2 double-transom 1-light windows, east; corner oriel on ornate stone corbel; swag frieze and dentilled cornice; necked gables above entrance bay and central window in west wing, each bearing a stone eagle about to take flight. The oriel terminates as a tourelle with a cupola roof characteristic of Lockwood. The very steep hipped roof behind the entrance and east bays is of 2-storey height with one lucarne in the lower storey, 2 in the upper storey and a short ridge with finials and an octagonal lantern cupola. INTERIOR: a round archway on polished granite columns with a smaller arch, on a corbel, to each side leads to a circular stair-hall having mosaic floor with armorial centrepiece; mosaic dado; the raked lecture-theatre, west, has 3-panel ceiling with cross-beams on consoles and dentil cornices. The gallery, east, has moulded frieze and dentil cornice to coved ceiling. The lobby behind the stair-hall leads to the Georgian House, No.20 Castle Street (qv). The front room west of the entrance hall could not be inspected; the east room has an ornate fireplace and overmantel, carved window-arrises and cornice. Geometrical stone stair with mosaic dado rises in 4 flights to second and third storeys where the rooms could not be inspected; the half-drum above the stair has pilasters carrying arched radial trusses beneath a rooflight.

Listing NGR: SJ4047465946