Number 11 and 13 Street

NUMBER 11 AND 13 NORTHGATE STREET, CHESTER

A two-storey building with undercroft, erected in 1900 as part of the reconstruction of Shoemakers' Row, designed by architect John Douglas of Douglas and Minshull in the Vernacular Revival style. Douglas was a prolific regional architect known for his Old English half-timbered work. The building was commissioned by Chester Corporation in 1897 and developed for JF Denson and Sons, drapers. The redevelopment of Shoemakers' Row (comprising numbers 3 to 31 Northgate Street) took place between 1897 and 1909, prompted by concerns over insanitary conditions in the congested Northgate area, renewed interest in vernacular style, and municipal road widening schemes at the end of the 19th century.

The exterior is constructed of cast iron and timber framing with plaster panels, beneath a grey-green slate roof. The Row sits two steps above pavement level, probably lower than the medieval Row storey. A two-bay arcade features hollow posts with fronts carved in late 16th to 17th century style, concealing cast-iron or steel columns on red sandstone bases that carry non-structural richly carved segmental arches of timber on carved brackets. The fascia to the bressumer displays a carved cornice.

The upper storey has decorative timber-framed panels beneath a seven-light bowed oriel window to each bay, flanked by a pair of lights to either side. All windows feature moulded mullions, transoms, and leaded glazing. Each oriel has richly carved open-work skirting beneath jettied gables. The gables display two rows of ornate quatrefoil panels, carved bargeboards, and console bracket supports. A taller rear wing, partly three storeys with cellar and attic, is slate-hung with a single gable. The rear of the building is brick with plain, slightly recessed wooden casement windows.

The interior contains sandstone medieval undercrofts, now cellars. The undercroft to number 11 features a rectangular central pier and former passageway providing access to the rear or upper storey. The Row-level interior displays moulded cast-iron columns. The upper storey comprises an open sales floor with full-width panelled-plaster barrel-vault and rooflights in canted rectangular wells.

Medieval undercrofts survive below street level. Later alterations include extension of the ground-floor shop into number 9 Northgate Street. John Douglas also developed the adjacent building at number 9 and acted as architect on several other buildings in the Shoemakers' Row redevelopment.