St Olaves Exhibition Centre Including Forecourt Walls and Railings is a Grade II listed building in the Cheshire West and Chester local planning authority area, England. First listed on 28 July 1955. Exhibition centre, church. 1 related planning application.
St Olaves Exhibition Centre Including Forecourt Walls and Railings
- WRENN ID
- iron-cobble-azure
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Cheshire West and Chester
- Constituency
- Chester North and Neston MP: Samantha Dixon (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 28 July 1955
- Type
- Exhibition centre, church
- Address
- St Olaves Exhibition Centre Including Forecourt Walls and Railings, Lower Bridge Street, CH1 1RR
- OS grid reference
- SJ 406 659
- Coordinates
- 53.18731, -2.88995
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
St Olave's Exhibition Centre, originally a church, dates back to the 11th century, with the current structure likely built in the mid-15th century. It was restored with some alterations in 1859 by James Harrison and converted into an exhibition centre in the 1980s with minimal changes. The forecourt walls, which once supported a building in front of the Row walk, are of medieval origin. The building is constructed of red sandstone rubble and has a grey slate roof.
The exterior features a simple hall church design with a renewed elliptical-arched west doorway, a boarded double door, and a restored three-light panel-tracery window above the doorway. There is a small gabled stone bellcote. On the south side, there is a rectangular three-light mullioned window and a one-light window with a cusped head further east. The north side has similar windows, but the rectangular window consists of two lights, both with leaded glazing. The east end has a renewed segmental-arched window with three cusped lights, featuring three small modern stained-glass panels.
Inside, the space is very simple and plastered throughout, with noticeably outward-leaning side walls. The forecourt, at the former Row level, includes a sandstone rubble retaining wall and a flight of ten simple stone steps leading up from St Olave's Street to the north. There is a wrought-iron railing along St Olave's Street and the steps, while modern steel railings to the west and south are not included in this listing.
Local climate
St Olaves Exhibition Centre Including Forecourt Walls and Railings receives an average of 890 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 66% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 78% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 62% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 5 transactions since 2001
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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