Chester College Old Building And Wall, North East And South East

CHESTER CITY (EM)

SJ46NW CHEYNEY ROAD 1932-1/2/44 (North side) 10/01/72 Chester College Old Building and wall, north-east and south-east (Formerly Listed as: PARKGATE ROAD Chester College main building)

II

College of Higher Education. Founded in 1839, the earliest Church of England Diocesan College for training schoolteachers; 1841-2 by JC and G Buckler. Stone-dressed brown brick with grey slate roofs. Tudor Revival style. EXTERIOR: basement and 3 storeys; the original entrance front to Parkgate Road is E-shaped, with lower wing, formerly the College's school, right. Basement has replaced casements under gauged-brick flat arches. The narrow central entrance bay projects. Stone-dressed forecourt wall returns as parapets to 15 stone steps to studded door of 3-full-height panels in ornate sandstone, weathered case. A 3-light mullioned and transomed casement in bay to each side of entrance; each end bay has a 5-light casement; shorter windows in similar order to each upper storey are altered. Stone-coped gables to central bay and end-bays. To right a recessed link-bay to former schoolroom which has gable-end to front; a full mullioned and transomed window with four rows of 4 lights; stone-coped gable with kneelers and finial; louvred bellcote under belled pyramidal roof on ridge. Both sides of the rear part of the Old Building are freely composed, with Tudor detail. The right side is built against; the left side adjoins the Chapel (qv) and has a mid C20 two-storey porch, now the entrance, facing Cheyney Road. The rear, or garden, face is expressed similarly to the front, and altered to a similar degree. The 3-gabled bays do not project; hence the composition is less vertical in composition, and more reposed. INTERIOR: one or two ground floor rooms facing Parkgate Road retain original character, but elsewhere most are altered. The stone-coped wall to the Parkgate forecourt to the Old Building is continued in coursed sandstone to the corner of Cheyney Road and south-west along Cheyney Road. Birdsmouthed stone coping; 2 pairs of square gateposts to Cheyney Road with birdsmouthed pyramidal caps.

Listing NGR: SJ4018867251