3-6, Abbey Green

A terrace of four late 18th-century town houses located on Abbey Green, Chester, originally built for leaseholders from the Dean and Chapter of Chester Cathedral. The houses are constructed of Flemish bond brown brick with grey slate roofs. They present three storeys and thirteen windows to the upper floors. Each house has a timber door consisting of six flush panels with a plain overlight, set within a timber case featuring an eared architrave, plain frieze, and moulded cornice hood. The windows are flush sashes with painted stone sills and rusticated wedge lintels incorporating false keystones. The arrangement of doors and windows differs slightly between the houses; for instance, No.3 has a door and two windows on its upper floors, while No.6 has a door and two windows facing the green. Nos. 3, 4, and 5 each have four-pane sashes to each storey, except for the third storey of No.3 which has a six-pane sash. No.6 has had the glazing bars removed from the lower two storeys and retains six-pane sashes on the third. A painted stone cornice runs beneath the brick parapet, which is finished with plain stone coping. Iron rainwater pipes and heads are also present. The north end wall of No.3 was rebuilt in the 20th century, incorporating 13-pane and 6-pane sashes. Four chimneys are located behind the roof ridge, with three visible from the front. The rear elevation exhibits irregular window placement, largely featuring small-pane flush sashes.

The interior of No.4 retains several original features, including six-panel doors, panelled window embrasures with shutters, cornices, a staircase with an open string, shaped brackets, three “column-on-vase” balusters per step, a swept handrail with a rose, turned lower-storey newels, and square upper-storey newels. No.5 also has original features, including a cellar with walls of sandstone rubble (south, east and west) and brick (north), stone steps, six- and four-panel doors, embrasure benches with shutters, cornices, and a staircase with brackets and a curtail step, alongside similar balusters and handrails. Fireplaces are featured in several rooms, with a particularly noteworthy cast-iron fireplace in a carved wood surround in the second-storey rear room of No.5. The interiors of Nos. 3 and 6 were not inspected but are likely to contain similar details.

The terrace is depicted on a map of Chester surveyed by Weston and published by James Hunter in 1789, demonstrating its presence and established character by the end of the 18th century.