7, Grosvenor Street

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SE GROSVENOR STREET 595-1/4/195 (South East side) No.7 WRVS Office

GV II

Home and centre for midwives, then nurses' home, now WRVS office. 1898. By Douglas and Minshull at the expense of the 1st Duke of Westminster for the Chester Benevolent Institution which provided free midwifery services for the poor. Diapered stone-dressed Ruabon red brick; Westmorland green slate roof. Vernacular Revival style. EXTERIOR: 2 and 3 storeys; 4 bays. Flush ashlar sandstone plinth; 2 stone steps in canted recessed porch to panelled door with 2 small leaded lights, on wrought-iron hinges, in stone basket arch; larger basket arch to front of porch surmounted by carved stone panel inscribed W:1898, indicating that the building was at the expense of the first Duke of Westminster. Volutes to sides of panel. The mullioned and transomed windows are leaded, under basket-arched heads. The first storey has one 4-light casement west of door and 2 of 3 lights to east. Moulded second storey floor string, flush sillband and lintel band; a 3-light casement, west, one of 2 lights over doorway, then 2 of 3 lights and one of 2 lights. The 3-storey portion, east of doorway, has two 3-light casements and one of 2 lights; 2 dormer gables. 2 shaped ridge chimneys. The east side has miscellaneous small-pane timber casements and a jettied canted bay of brick through the second and third storeys. A one-storey outshut, west. INTERIOR: has some original fireplaces and doors with reeded stiles, rails and muntins. (Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 120; Hubbard E: John Douglas: 1991-).

Listing NGR: SJ4053866053