St Oswald's Chambers consists of a commercial property at 20–22 St Werburgh 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 as a designated Grade II listed building.

History

The building was designed by local architect John Douglas and built in 1898. St Werburgh Street had been widened in the mid-1890s, and Douglas designed a terrace that was built around 1895–97, which consisted of shops and a bank on the east side of the street, numbered 2–18. Widening the street had opened up the view of Chester Cathedral from Eastgate Street, but beyond the terrace the view was partly obscured by structures belonging to the business of Dicksons, seed merchants and

nurserymen A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general ...

. Douglas purchased the site to the north of the terrace and designed St Oswald's Chambers to be built in line with the terrace, and in a similar style, to enhance the view towards the cathedral. , the building was occupied by an opticians' practice.

Architecture

St Oswald's Chambers is constructed in two storeys with a rear wing. The upper storey is entirely timber-framed; the main part of the lower storey is in red sandstone, and the lower storey of the wing is in red Ruabon brick. The roof is of

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

green

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. ...

. The main front of the building is on St Werburgh Street and faces west; a

canted Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...

corner leads to the south front in a side street. In the centre of the main front is an arched doorway with the date in the spandrels of the arch. Above it is a panel inscribed with the name of the building. To the left of the door is a mullioned and transomed window and to the right is a shop window. In the corner is the door leading into the shop. The upper storey contains two

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...

s; that to the left has four lights and the other has three. Above each window is a

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

gable, each with a richly carved bargeboard. On the corner, above the doorway, is a nine-light casement window, with three lights on each front and the other three lights across the corner. Over this is a short octagonal spire, topped by a

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

and a weather vane. The south face has a two-light window in the lower storey and a three-light window above. On the north side are one three-light and three four-light windows in each storey. The rear wing has two casement windows in each storey. Three shaped brick chimneys rise from the roof.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Oswald's Chambers, Chester Buildings and structures in Chester Grade II listed buildings in Chester John Douglas buildings Commercial buildings completed in 1898 Timber framed buildings in Cheshire 1898 establishments in England

History

Architecture

See also

References