4, Park Street

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SE PARK STREET 595-1/4/330 (West side) 10/01/72 No.4

GV II

Town house, now dental surgeries. 1881. By WH Kelly. Orange brick and timber frame with plaster panels; render to sides; grey slate roof with paired gables to street. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys of 2 bays. The brick first storey has door of 8 fielded panels with 1-pane ogee-headed fanlight; carriage entry north of door; recessed canted mullioned and transomed bay window of 15 panes south of door; richly-carved fascia. 4 ornate consoles carry carved jettied bressumer. Band of small framing with ornate quadrant braces. Two 4-light mullioned and transomed casements have 6 panes to lower sidelights, glazing bars removed from lights between and top lights with 2 panes, a semicircular pane and 2 shaped top panes; the panel-width between casements has 2 ornate cartouches; the end-panels have quadrant braces above the intermediate rail; 2 consoles carry jettied bressumer inscribed THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS A FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. The third storey has 2 panel-widths of small framing to each side of a pair of mullioned 3-light casements with semicircular upper panes; quadrant and S bracing; 4 Atlantes and 2 consoles; an ornate cartouche between windows; jettied gabled tie-beam; band of 8 ornate St Andrew's Cross panels; small framing in each gable; ornately carved bargeboards sweep down to the consoles carrying their outer ends; drop finials; terracotta ridge finials at back. Shaped lateral chimneys set back. The north side is rendered, the south side of brick with some plaster-panelled timber framing. The rear wing, with no visible individual features of special interest, looks older than the front. INTERIOR: the first storey front room has fireplace and overmantel with hollow obelisks as finials; some Vernacular Revival 6-panel doors and cases and stair after the manner of Douglas. Pevsner's comment here sums up ironically the relationship between vernacular and Vernacular Revival in Chester "Their (Nos 6-16 Park Street (qv)) neighbour is of 1881 and hence bigger and better." (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Hubbard E: Cheshire: Harmondsworth: 1971-: 165).

Listing NGR: SJ4074966083