John Douglas - Chimneys and Chester

Have you ever noticed the plethora of chimney sizes and shapes in the city of Chester? You might think this is a niche subject, but once you start looking up it can be quite addictive! One of the most famous architects associated with chimneys in Chester is John Douglas, and this blog post will introduce you to him and his beautiful work. Why not make it into a tour of the city?

John Douglas was born in Sandiway in 1830 and worked prodigiously in Cheshire as an architect. He became articled (bound to a firm to undertake training in order to qualify in a profession) to the prominent Lancaster architect E.G. Paley during the 1840s. Here he gained grounding in ecclesiastical commissions which would influence some of his later work. He worked on grand houses including Eaton Hall (his principal patron being the Grosvenor family), Oakmere Hall, Shotwick Park and Broxton Hall, as well as lodges in parks, and churches, even entire rows of shops! His style was very broad, as you will see from the examples below, borrowing from European architecture with a romantic, fairy-tale flair influenced by Germanic castles. His work is characterised by half-timber, brick and terracotta, a mix of Gothic and Renaissance elements, and barley sugar twist chimneys.

From 1860 he lived and worked at No.6 Abbey Square, before moving with his family to Dee Banks and retaining No.6 as his office. Douglas went on to partner with Daniel Porter Fordham, and later Charles Howard Minshull. Douglas produced the Abbey Square Sketch Book, in three volumes dating from 1872 to 1889, consisting of sketches and architectural drawings by many contributors [ref: 220399].

Sadly Douglas’s wife and four of his five children died during his lifetime. Douglas then spent the last years of his life in Walmoor Hill, Dee Banks, a building he designed, and passed away in 1911. Douglas was a member of the Chester Archaeological Society for half a century, joining in 1861, and his obituary can be found in the 1911 edition of the society’s journal [ref: 011059];

“…his reproductions of the Cheshire style in both City and Country are a pleasing monument to this memory.”

So in memory of Douglas, here is a whistle-stop tour of several buildings associated with him which you can still see today in Chester:

• 1-11 and 13 Bath Street – built on land owned by Douglas in 1903. Incorporating sandstone, the houses are detailed, with conical-roofed turrets. No.13 was to have formed part of a projected street which would have linked up with Grosvenor Park Road, though this did not come to fruition. 
• Grosvenor Park Lodge – a Grade II Listed building, originally the park-keeper’s lodge, built 1865-7 for the second Marquess of Westminster. The external walls bear ornamental carvings representing William the Conqueror and the seven Norman Earls of Chester. The lodge is a picturesque little building, with a stone ground storey and half-timbered above, evoking older Tudor buildings. 

• Grosvenor Club and North & South Wales Bank, Eastgate Street – Douglas made additions to this building in 1908. This is now the HSBC, next to the Eastgate Clock. 

• East Side of St Werburgh Street, St Oswald’s Chambers - again built on land owned by Douglas, for S.J.R. Dickson in 1898. The buildings feature ornamental carved woodwork and are gable-fronted. Douglas purchased the street to maintain a uniformity of architecture, rather than a mix of styles being produced from different owners. 
• 29-31 Northgate Street – Douglas worked on part of the rebuilding of Shoemakers’ Row in 1902. 

• Diamond Jubilee Memorial Clock – towering above the crowds on the streets below, you can get a fantastic view from the Eastgate Clock of the chimneys and rooftops associated with Douglas. Possibly his most famous work, the clock commemorates Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee, although it was actually completed two years later in 1899. 
• 6-11 Grosvenor Park Road – high steep roofs and several gables, slender octagonal turrets, moulded red bricks and tiles, all characteristic Douglas touches. Built in 1879-80, the buildings lead to the main entrance of Grosvenor Park and its lodge also by Douglas. Built at the same time, today we can still see the Grosvenor Park Baptist Church, again featuring octagonal turrets and dramatic skylines. 
• Parker’s Buildings, Foregate Street – plus the two buildings flanking it, were designed by Douglas in 1888 and built by George Parker as model tenement buildings. The buildings were later modernised and re-opened in 1982 by the Northern Counties Housing Association Limited. 

Although many designs by Douglas are still visible today, others have been demolished, such as his work on the Little Nag’s Head Cocoa House in Foregate Street, a half-timbered, ornately carved building. Many of his other designs and schemes remain unexecuted. 

We have books, pamphlets, visual materials, correspondence, sketches, and plans at Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, so if this has inspired you to research an old Cheshire building near you, or you are interested to see which other works Douglas contributed to in the county and beyond, why not get in touch? You can also visit www.cheshireimagebank.org.uk to explore our visual collection online.

Volunteer Stories: Wandering and wondering about Warrington

Kath and Joan didn't know each other when they began volunteering here, they are now a crack team and firm friends, having worked their way through 2,764 (and counting) Warrington Borough Council building plans - removing old acidic envelopes, repackaging, inspecting and cataloguing - making them searchable and accessible for the first time. Here they reflect on their experience ...


It usually seems that the rich and powerful leave the better preserved records and artefacts. This is not always the case in the drawings for planning permissions granted by Warrington Borough Council in the early 1880s. It is the less well-off doing their own drawings on rougher quality paper whose records are usually better preserved. The architects used tracing paper for the block plans, ground plans, elevations and sections for the better off clients. Unfortunately, as Angela, one of the conservators here explains ‘Transparent papers do not age well and are often found in poorer physical condition than non-transparent papers of the same age. They were exposed to acids, impregnated with oils or manufactured with over-beaten fibres to give them their transparent qualities. Oxidation and acid hydrolysis will cause discolouration and cause the paper to become brittle and prone to cracking.’ Fortunately, the main architects of Warrington, William Owen, Robert Curran, and Pierpoint & Adams, usually write an accompanying letter which contain the salient facts - where, what and for whom. A glimpse of social mobility is provided during this period when John Wright from his letterheads moves from being a builder to an architect in the town.


Planning permission provides a fascinating snapshot of the development of Warrington in the late 19th century. There are applications to build new streets of terraced houses which have to be built in accordance with the local bye-laws, brick built, slate roofed and with drainage to sewers as well as with closets in the yards. 'To be drained as shown with glazed socket drain tiles laid with proper fall and clay puddled joints into the present nine inch sewer in Porter Street' (1882, Mr William Hewitt). Bathrooms and indoor closets are the preserve of the rich in the borough. Yet James Parkinson wants to convert a kitchen and lumber room to a photographic studio complete with dressing room, preparing room and darkroom and an indoor closet in 1883. The names of the developers and landowners are a fascinating mix of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ men of Warrington: a map drawn up in 1882 of the land owned by the Honourable Leopold W H Powys shows numerous new streets with no names available for leasing to builders in Little Sankey. The names of the developers including John Appleton and William Porter keep on reoccurring.


Applications for planning permissions not only provide information about the architects, builders, and the landowners but also reveal how the borough was developing otherwise. Schools are being built or altered; some include a house for the teacher as well as the separate girls’ and boys’ entrances, classrooms and playgrounds. Is it a case of desperate measures in a very last-minute application to build two closets at Bank Street School before the “schools open again on Monday next.”?

Entertainment is also provided for: an application was received from Mr Harmston for a temporary erection of a circus tent in 1881 complete with side elevations and a ground plan showing the seating, an orchestra pit and stabling (above). In 1883 Mr Brinsley Sheridan applied to construct a new theatre on Scotland Road (below).

Commercial premises also reflect new standards, when in 1883 a new fish warehouse had to comply with the standards laid down by the Local Board of Health. Even the man who converted his front room and bedroom above to a temporary stable and hayloft had to make sure that there was no direct access to these new features from the rest of his house.

Talking of stables, there is no greater contrast between the rich Captain Sylvanus Reynolds’ substantial architect-designed brick built stable house with accommodation for the coach man and four horses and the distinctly less wealthy Mr W Owen wood shippon stable for four horses to be built on waste land off Ellesmere Street as shown on the rough sketch drawn by him which comprises his planning application.


There is also evidence of the growing wealth of women, who owned property and were active in its development or alteration at a time when married women’s possession (and they themselves) were the property of their husbands. Mrs Ann Jackson applies for permission to build a slaughter house and stable in Church Street, and Mrs Harriet Woods owns houses on Church Street and a druggist shop on the corner of Church Street and Orchard Street and more cottages on Orchard Street and wants to build a warehouse between the druggist and the cottages.


Finally, just to prove that there is nothing new in the current fashion for artisan coffee, Mr Geddes wants to build a new warehouse at the junction of Peter Street and Market Street for his coffee roasting room and shop.