This is a listed ( 2* ) pair of Georgian townhouses  built in around 1850. We are on a site of special archeological interest, in a Conservation Area and also an English Heritage site.

As you can imagine, the restoration of this partly-derelict site has had to be carried out with great sensitivity to ensure our building remains in keeping with the historic nature of the area.

Chester ( Deva ) fortress was built in AD 46 as a regional Roman powerbase to control the lucrative lead and silver mines of nearby North Wales and local and international trade.

The walls were completed in AD 61 The via decumana ( Northgate Street ) led from the Legate’s residence ( by the Cross ) , past the main Regimental Baths and Admin. centre ( by the Forum precinct ) and parade grounds and barracks ( Abbey Square and Abbey Green ) to the Porta Decumana ( Northgate ) or  “ Fortified Gate “.

During the 400 years or so of Roman occupation, all burials except some young children would have been outside the walls, usually alongside roads leading into the city.

Deva was abandoned in AD 476 and thereafter was sparsely inhabited until the Castle was built by the Norman Earl Hugh Lupus in the late 11th Century. Parts of the city were rebuilt in AD 1224 by the daughter of Alfred the Great.

In the Civil War, Royalist Chester was besieged by Parliamentarian forces under Sir Richard Brereton in 1645-6. Sharpshooters used the buildings in the Upper Northgate Street area for cover as they sniped at troops on the walls, so all buildings from the North Wall back to about the current site of the George and Dragon Pub on Liverpool Road, including the original Bluecoat School,  were razed to the ground. The original Roman ditch or moat was filled in, partly with rubble from this destruction.

The Northgate Gaol complex was later developed around the old Northgate, and included a House of Correction which was on the site of this building.

The Shropshire Union Canal was cut in around 1790. Fortunately for the builders, the section adjacent to the waiting area was mostly backfill in the old moat, making the excavation much easier than had been expected.

Our buildings were built in around 1850, and the framed deed nearby mentions Edward Tilston and James Smith who appear to have sold the property to one Thomas Whittle, Elder of the City of Chester and a Baker and Flour dealer in 1859.

Several families lived here until after World War II, when commercial operations appear to have taken over. These have included a Manufacturing Jeweller and several professional and financial companies over the years until we acquired it in 2005.

In the main waiting area, the original sandstone block wall can be seen, some of it appearing to date from a previous building. The sandstone pieces below were found buried in a derelict flowerbed in the same position, and are clearly very old indeed, having been ornately carved. 

From this position, you will have one of the most significant views of the Chester Walls, as the section opposite and to the left, with the ledge sticking out about 6 feet from the top, is the longest intact section of original Roman walling in the world, outside Italy.

This was disturbed as little as possible and preserved for the future.

Cellars were also uncovered at the front of the building, including two deep, box-shaped cellars below basement level cut into the sandstone and about 12 feet below pavement
level. It is unclear what these represent, but given the history of the  site, they may represent dungeons, or “eases” from the House of Correction.

We hope you enjoy this beautiful building as much as we do, and hope this potted history gives food for thought that, as you wait, you are in a place where many interesting things have been happening for a very long time.

We hope your Dental appointment will be more relaxing than some of the events here over the last two thousand years!