Number 68 Street

Number 68 Watergate Street, Chester

Town house, now shop and offices. Built in 1729 for Alderman Henry Bennett, altered probably in the later 18th century and front rebuilt retaining original features in the mid-20th century. The building is constructed of painted stone and stone-dressed brown brick with a grey slate roof of 4 narrow spans with ridges parallel with Watergate Street.

Exterior

The building comprises 3 storeys plus cellars. The front to the lowest storey, added in the late 18th or early 19th century, is of rusticated stone with moulded plinth and a recessed porch to the right in a moulded basket-arched case with five steps. This leads to a house (now office) door of 6 fielded panels, with a shop door to the left. A shop window with moulded stone surround and cornice complete this level.

The rebuilt brick front above incorporates three 15-pane flush sashes to the second storey. The central sash sits in a shouldered and eared architrave with a lion bearing a Cross of Lorraine on the face of a raised triple keystone. Each side sash has a painted stone sill and an acanthus keystone. A substantial cornice at the base of the attic storey is returned at each end. Two 4-pane sashes under cambered heads with moulded keystones sit below the upper cornice, which carries a low parapet with moulded coping.

The west side to Trinity Street is of old brown brick. The first storey has a recessed porch with a half-glazed 4-panel door, a small 9-pane flush sash and 2 replaced tripartite sashes under cambered heads. Three-course brick floor-level bands run to the second and third storeys. The second storey contains a Venetian stair-window of 4;16;4 panes, which replaces blocked openings that formerly held a pair of sashes with a pair of circular windows above. There is also a small inserted second storey window and a 24-pane flush sash. The upper band is carried over the blocked circular openings. The third storey has a 4-pane sash in a rebuilt opening with cambered head and moulded keystone, and three 12-pane flush sashes, each positioned under the gable of one of the four ridges. Three lateral chimneys are present, the rearmost being large. A narrow 2-storey rear wing is attached.

The rear elevation shows 2 visible 16-pane sashes to the second storey and a 16-pane sash and a 12-pane sash to the third storey.

Interior

The cellars, arranged in the manner of undercrofts, are ceiled with a pair of long, parallel brick barrel-vaults. The front chamber at former Row level, now a shop, has an 18th-century fireplace in its west wall, a former screen of 2 Tuscan columns against its rear wall and a cornice. The stair hall has a basket-arched doorway to the entrance lobby and to the rear east room, which has a panelled dado and a cornice. The rear east room and the front west room (the shop) have doors of 8 fielded panels, while the rear west room has a door of 6 fielded panels. The lobby door is renewed.

The oak open-well stair against the west wall is probably of the mid-18th century, with open string displaying shallow overlapping steps, curtail steps, a heavy swept rail on 3 barleysugar-on-vase balusters and a panelled dado. A panelled embrasure to the stair window is present. A probably original but now secondary stair is positioned diagonally north-east of the main stair, with open well, dado panelling to the second storey, dado rail to the third storey and probably repaired turned balusters.

The second storey has a basket-arched doorway to the rear east room, which also has a basket-arched recess, doors of 8 fielded panels and embrasures with 2 panels under windows. The third storey has doors of 2 and 4 fielded panels and a corner chimney-breast.