Three Old Arches is a building at 48 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 tow ...
, England. Together with the adjacent building at No. 50, 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, a ...
as a designated Grade I
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 I ...
.
The buildings incorporate part of the
Chester Rows
Chester Rows are a set of structures in each of the four main streets of Chester, in the United Kingdom, consisting of a series of covered walkways on the first floor behind which are entrances to shops and other premises. At street level is a ...
. The stone frontage at the street and row levels of No. 48 is considered to be the earliest shop front still surviving in England.
[
]
History
The building was constructed in the 13th century. During the 14th century it was extended to the south (into what is now No. 50), when the hall, set parallel to the rows, was built. During the 20th century part of the building was used by William Jones, a grocer. In the 1960s the business was taken over by the department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appe ...
of Owen Owen
Owen Owen was a Liverpool-based operator of department stores in the United Kingdom and Canada. Beginning with a drapery shop in Liverpool, a chain of department stores was built up, often by taking over rival retailers. The company remained u ...
, but this closed in 1999.[ The ground floor continues to be used as a shop.
]
Architecture
Exterior
At the level of the row are three round-headed chamfer
A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces.
Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, ...
ed arches, the piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
of which pass down to the ground level, at the sides of the windows and entrance of the shop at this level.[ Above the arches, in Gothic script, is the inscription "Three Old Arches". Duplicated at the tops of the piers, between the arches, is the date "1274 AD".]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 windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass.
History
...
s, each with 12 panes and, in the top storey is another sash window, this one being tripartite, with 4:12:4 panes.[
]
Interior
In the 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 ...
of No. 48, the original stone pillars have been replaced by cast-iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
columns. The undercroft of No. 50 retains its original stone arch. Much of the medieval stone hall remains at the level of the row, which extends between Nos. 48 and 50.[ It is the largest stone-walled hall set parallel with the row in Chester, measuring over 12m by over 8m, and it contains four medieval doorways.][ The hall also contains a 16th-century open fireplace with a 19th-century cast-iron range.][
]
See also
*
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Buildings and structures in Chester
Grade I listed buildings in Chester
Medieval architecture