St Oswalds Chambers

SJ4066SE 595-1/4/353 23/05/67

CHESTER CITY (IM) ST WERBURGH STREET (East side)

Nos.20 AND 22 St Oswalds Chambers

II

GV

Offices, now opticians. 1898. By John Douglas as architect and probably developer. Squared snecked red sandstone rubble, timber frame with plaster panels and red Ruabon brick; hipped Westmorland green slate roof; the building is almost detached. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, double-fronted, asymmetric. The front has a shaped 9-panel door now glazed in a basket archway with colonnettes, 18;98 in spandrels and SAINT OSWALD CHAMBERS above; a 4-light leaded ovolo-mullioned casement north and a shop window south with leaded glazing in stallriser. The timber-framed second storey has a 4-light mullioned and transomed leaded casement, north, the upper lights with patterned leading, under a carved lintel; a similar window of 3 lights above the doorway; a casement of 3;3;3 lights around the south-west corner, above small-framing with cusped-arch heads; dormer gables with richly carved bargeboards over the north and central casements; a short octagonal spire over the south-west window has a weathervane on the lead finial. The north side has a 3-light mullioned and leaded casement and three 4-light mullioned and transomed casements to the first storey and a similar series, with leading removed, to the second storey. The south side has a 2-light casement plus a 1-light casement at the canted south-east corner; the second storey has a casement with leading removed. The rear wing, of brick to the lower storey and framed above, has 2 casements to each storey with some leaded glazing. 3 shaped brick chimneys. INTERIOR: has some alterations and covered surfaces, but retains features including doors. (Hubbard E: The Work of John Douglas: London: 1991-: 192).

Listing NGR: SJ 40637 66405