Description

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SW WATERGATE STREET AND ROW
595-1/3/402 (South side)
10/01/72 Watergate House
(Formerly Listed as:
WATERGATE STREET
Watergate House)

GV II*

Town house, then headquarters of North Western Command, now
offices. 1820. By Thomas Harrison. For Henry Potts, Clerk of
the Peace. Flemish bond brown brick, with stone dressings
later stuccoed; grey slate roofs with lead rolls.
EXTERIOR: basement and 2 storeys, with 3 sashes to each storey
of main block on north, west and east fronts; a probably
contemporary service wing to south is recessed, east, and
projects, west. The square plan of the main block, with main
entrance at its north east corner giving access through a
lobby to a central top-lit hall, allows principal rooms on all
4 sides.
A 2-storey convex quadrant recessed into the north-east corner
contains the main entrance with curved 8-panel door, 4-pane
sidelights and 3-pane overlight in Ionic doorcase approached
by 6 curved stone steps repaired in concrete; the second
storey has a 12-pane sash in a stone architrave bearing the
initials ER (Edwardus Rex).
The north front to Watergate Street has three 9-pane sashes to
basement, facing an area with stone retaining wall and
cast-iron railings; each upper storey has 3 recessed 12-pane
sashes with simple painted stone sills and gauged brick flat
arches. All fronts have plinth, moulded band and cornice.
The east front to Nicholas Street Mews has a barred opening in
plinth, behind a raised pavement with damaged cast-iron
railings on a round-topped stone base; each upper storey has 3
sashes as on north front; 6 repaired stone steps, rising
parallel with the frontage, lead to each side of the access
landing to a door of 6 flush panels with blocked overlight,
left.
The recessed service wing behind a shallow brick-walled yard,
has an altered door; a 12-pane recessed sash with one blocked
window opening to each of the 2 storeys above and an added
dormer to attic. The west front to garden has a broad
segmental central brick bow containing a curved tripartite
french sash of 8;12;8 panes with a tripartite sash of 4;12;4
panes above; to each side there is a 12-pane recessed sash to
each storey. A raised stone pavement has a grated recess for a

basement window. The projecting service wing, right, has a
damaged 16-pane sash to lower storey, with a similar window
and a blocked opening above. The south elevation to the
service wing has a 20-pane recessed sash and a damaged
tripartite sash of 4;12;4 panes to the lower storey, three
20-pane sashes to the second storey and 2 blocked openings to
the attic storey; the lower portion, left, has a replaced
boarded door with overlight, a 16-pane sash to each side and
three 20-pane sashes to upper storey.
INTERIOR: detailed notes of the interior could not be taken.
The plan is probably unique. The entrance leads through a
domed circular corner lobby to the octagonal central hall with
a pair of pillars, west, supporting a gallery-landing. The
stone main stair south has moulded iron balusters. Conversion
to offices has left structure and detail largely undamaged,
most notably the west range of rooms
(Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-:
47-48).

Listing NGR: SJ4022066191

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Watergate House, Chester at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7974114

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2