Park House is at 37–41 Lower Bridge Street,

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Park House was built in about 1717 as a town house for Elizabeth Booth. It was extended in the late 18th century, and in 1818 was converted into a hotel named the Albion Hotel. At this time the of parkland behind the house were converted into Chester's first public pleasure gardens. The gardens closed in 1865 when the Grosvenor Park was being developed, and working-class terraced houses were built on the site. At some time the name of the hotel was changed to the Talbot Hotel. The house later became used as a library, and later as a licensed premises and shop. Alterations were carried out in the 20th century.

Architecture

The building is constructed in brick that is rendered on the front. It has stone dressings and a grey

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. The architectural style is

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

. The building is in three storeys with a semi-basement; it is symmetrical with five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

. The central bay contains a projecting porch with Tuscan columns. Seven steps lead up to the main entrance. Four steps go down to the north semi-basement, and two to the south semi-basement. At the sides of the building are rusticated

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

. Each bay on all storeys contains a

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

. The interior includes a

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...

References

{{Reflist Houses completed in 1717 Park House Grade II listed buildings in Chester Grade II listed houses Georgian architecture in Cheshire 1717 establishments in England

History

Architecture

See also

References