Oddfellows' Hall, originally Bridge House is at 16–24 Lower Bridge Street, Chester, Cheshire, 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, a ...

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 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 ...

, 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 usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

. During the early 18th century the house was occupied by John Williams, a local attorney general. 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 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 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 classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

, and above the doorway is a broken

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

, over which is a

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

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 formed of superposed Doric pilasters, and each bay contains a sash window. At the top of the building a cornice is supported on square brackets. The interior contains richly ornamented baroque decoration.

References

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External links

Website
Buildings and structures in Chester Grade II* listed buildings in Chester Neoclassical architecture in Cheshire Hotels in Cheshire Odd Fellows buildings in the United Kingdom

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links