The Tudor House is a shop and house at 29 and 31 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

The house was built for a wealthy merchant. It was probably built in 1603. Above the door is a plaque inscribed with the date 1503, but this is an error because the building has been dated to the early 17th century by

dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...

. It was extended to the rear in the middle of the 17th century, and in 1728 it was rebuilt, enclosing the portion of the

Row Row or ROW may refer to: Exercise *Rowing, or a form of aquatic movement using oars *Row (weight-lifting), a form of weight-lifting exercise Math *Row vector, a 1 × ''n'' matrix in linear algebra. *Row (database), a single, implicitly structured ...

passing through its first floor. At street level are two

undercroft An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area which is relatively open ...

s. In the past one undercroft was in use as a bakehouse, while the other formed part of the Britannia Inn. The building has subsequently been used as a café on the ground floor, with an apartment above it. The

timber framing Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

on the south side of the building was reconstructed in 1973–74.

Architecture

Tudor House is constructed in

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, in brick, and in timber framing with plaster panels, and is roofed in

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. ...

. It has four storeys plus a cellar. The lower two storeys are in brick, with timber-framing above. The entrance door at street level is in a doorway with a Tudor arch, and on each side of it is a two-pane window. Above the windows are headboards inscribed "TUDOR" and "HOUSE". The first floor contains three

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. The two top storeys are both

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the availa ...

and timber-framed. The third storey contains two three-light

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed and transomed casement windows, with panels containing S-shaped braces on their outer sides. The top storey has one three-light mullioned window over four arched panels. To the side of it are panels containing S-shaped braces, and above it is a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

with lozenge- and S-shaped braces. The lower two storeys on the south side of the house are constructed in sandstone, with timber-framing above.

References

{{Reflist Grade II* listed buildings in Chester Grade II* listed houses Tudor House Timber framed buildings in Cheshire Medieval architecture Houses completed in 1603

History

Architecture

See also

References