Oddfellows' Hall, originally Bridge House is at 16–24 Lower Bridge Street,
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
, 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, ...
as a designated Grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.
History
The hall was originally a town house built in 1676 for Lady Mary Calverley. She had petitioned the City Assembly for permission to demolish her house, which contained a section 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 ...
, and replace it with a new house. This was granted, but as it led to the loss of a portion of the Rows she was fined £20 ().
[ It was the first building in central Chester to be designed in ]classical style
Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De architectura'' (c. 10 AD) by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Va ...
.attorney general
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
. Since that time the building has been used for various purposes, including a school, a club, offices, and shops. The access to the building was altered in the late 19th century. Also in that century a sixth bay
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, ci ...
was added to the north, and in the later part of the century the ground floor was projected forward to incorporate shops.[ As of 2011 it is in use as a restaurant and hotel called Oddfellows Chester and a part of the Oddfellows hotel group of boutique hotels.]
Architecture
The building is constructed in brick, rendered at the front, and it has 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 ro ...
roof. It is in three storeys and has six bays. On the street level, the third bay from the south has a projecting entrance porch. On each side of its arched doorway is a pilaster
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
, and above the doorway is a broken pediment
Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
, over which is a frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
inscribed with ODDFELLOWS HALL. The other bays in the ground floor contain modern frontages. The first and second floor bays are linked and articulated by a colossal order
In classical architecture, a giant order, also known as colossal order, is an order whose columns or pilasters span two (or more) storeys. At the same time, smaller orders may feature in arcades or window and door framings within the storeys that ...
formed of superposed Doric pilasters, and each bay 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 windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass.
History
...
. At the top of the building a cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
is supported on square brackets.[ The interior contains richly ornamented ]baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
decoration.[
]
See also
* Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire West and Chester
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
Website
Grade II* listed buildings in Chester
Neoclassical architecture in Cheshire
Hotels in Cheshire
Odd Fellows buildings in the United Kingdom