Having developed a Conservation Management Plan and a Design Guide for this unique Chester asset, we were asked to undertake a series of conservation works to ensure the Rows can continue to serve visitors, businesses and residents for decades to come.
- Sector
- Public
- Tags
- Conservation Area
- Service
- Conservation architecture
The Chester Rows are a distinctive two-level galleries of shops and walkways in Chester city centre. Built above street level, they allow visitors to browse stores on both the street and upper levels. Some buildings in the Rows date back to 1290 or earlier.
The work involved permanent enhancements to the historic fabric of the Rows to reconnect owners, traders and the wider community with the historic value of the Rows and improve their recognition as a unique heritage designation of national and international significance.
Where historic timber stallboards remain, they have been repaired and redecorated. However, as many of the historic timber stallboards have been lost, we took this as an opportunity to reintroduce material authenticity, with any concreted-over stallboards being overclad with traditional oak boards, sized and orientated to reflect the particular period of each individual property.
In summary the works consisted of:
- Repair and refinish historic timber stallboards
- Remove later addition finishes to the stalboards and overclad with oak boards.
- Repair and redecorate the existing ceilings and flanking walls
- Remove any redundant modern signage and make good the underlying substrate
- Repair and redecorate the existing balustrades
- Retrofit the existing cast aluminium light fittings to the walkway with warm LEDs
- Install new cast aluminium warm LED downlighters to the steps
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