In some places the continuity of the Rows has been blocked by enclosure or by new buildings, but in others modern buildings have retained the Rows in their designs. Undercrofts or "crypts" were constructed beneath the buildings in the Rows. The undercrofts were in stone while most of the buildings in the Rows were in timber. Today about 20 of the stone undercrofts still exist, but at the level of the Rows very little medieval fabric remains.
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Emery, p. 197. At the time of the 1992 fire, the Undercroft had been divided into smaller rooms; the area is now opened up to form a single space in an effort to echo the undercrofts at Fountains and Rievaulx Abbeys, although the floor remains artificially raised for convenience of use.
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In some cases, where the hall was larger, there were several shops on its frontage. Below the Rows, at street level, were crypts or undercrofts. Many of these were stone-lined with ribbed vaults, and they were used for storage or for selling more valuable goods. Behind the hall, on the level of the Rows, was more domestic accommodation.
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At street level are two undercrofts. In the past one undercroft was in use as a bakehouse, while the other formed part of the Britannia Inn. The building has subsequently been used as a café on the ground floor, with an apartment above it. The timber framing on the south side of the building was reconstructed in 1973–74.
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Cowper House was built in 1664, following the destruction of many buildings in Chester during the Civil War. It was built above undercrofts dating from 1350–75, or possibly earlier. Alterations have been made to the building in the 19th and 20th centuries. Thomas Cowper had been mayor of Chester in 1641–42 and a Royalist supporter in the Civil War.
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The site nonetheless continued to be inhabited until at least the early 17th century. Little now remains of the castle itself, other than the remnants of some cellars or undercrofts. The ruined shell of a 14th-century gatehouse still survives, albeit in fairly poor condition. It is a listed building and is privately owned but can be visited by the public.
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In 2005, the room where Nelson's coffin was held prior to his being laid-in-state was opened as the Nelson Room. The little side room contains a statue of Nelson replicating the one in Trafalgar Square, memorabilia, paintings and information. It can be seen on one of the guided tours that also include a visit to the undercrofts, the old skittle alley and crypt.
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Bishop Lloyd's House (or Bishop Lloyd's Palace) is at 41 Watergate Street, and 51/53 Watergate Row, Chester, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner considered it to be "perhaps the best" house in Chester. The house is built on two stone medieval undercrofts with timber framing above.
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The inn originated from two former houses, their undercrofts now forming the inn's cellars. The older house, on the east side, is dated 1637, and the west house dates probably from the early 18th century. Part of Chester Rows formerly passed through the buildings, but this was enclosed in 1711. The inn also incorporates a former cottage to its rear built on a burgage plot.
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Undercrofts were common features at the time, used to house a variety of materials including food and firewood. Whynniard's undercroft, on the ground floor, was directly beneath the first-floor House of Lords, and may once have been part of the palace's medieval kitchen. Unused and filthy, its location was ideal for what the group planned to do. William Capon's map of Parliament clearly labels the undercroft used by "Guy Vaux" to store the gunpowder.
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The building was erected in about 1670, possibly above earlier undercrofts. The name reflects the trade undertaken with the Low Countries around that time. At the time it was built, it was the tallest and most impressive building in Bridge Street, and remained so for over 200 years. By the 1970s the building was in a state of decay, and it was restored and rebuilt in 1973–75 by Chester City Council.
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The Dutch Houses are constructed on sandstone piers, probably originating from the medieval period, with timber framing from the late 17th century, and rendered brickwork from the late 17th or the 18th century. It consists of three bays in four storeys plus an attic. The bottom storey incorporates the undercrofts, and a portion of the Chester Rows passes through the first floor. The lowest storey, at street level, includes modern shop fronts.
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The two undercrofts have walls of red sandstone rubble, with brick barrel vaults which were probably added in the 18th century. Leading from the row level to the third storey is a Chinese Chippendale staircase. In the third storey are two rooms. The larger room has an ornate 17th-century plaster ceiling and a massive fireplace; it is thought that these were moved from the Bishop's Palace in Abbey Square after this was damaged in the Civil War.
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The Old Crypt is a building at 11 Watergate Street and 15/15A Watergate Row, Chester, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building and incorporates part of Chester Rows. The Old Crypt is built in sandstone and brick with a grey slate roof. It has five storeys; the lowest two are medieval undercrofts dating from about 1180, and the storey above it includes part of Chester Rows.
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While some were used as simple storerooms, others were rented out as shops. For example, the undercroft rooms at Myres Castle in Scotland circa 1300 were used as the medieval kitchen and a range of stores. Many of these early medieval undercrofts were vaulted or groined, such as the vaulted chamber at Beverston Castle or the groined stores at Myres Castle. The term is sometimes used to describe a crypt beneath a church, used for burial purposes.
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For example, there is a 14th-century undercroft or crypt extant at Muchalls Castle in Scotland, even though the original chapel above it was destroyed in an act of war in 1746. Undercrofts were commonly built in England and Scotland throughout the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. They occur in cities such as London, Chester, Coventry and Southampton. The undercroft beneath the Houses of Parliament in London was rented to the conspirators behind the Gunpowder Plot.
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The staircase can still be followed up to the remnants of the first floor, though the actual flooring is no longer present. On the outside of the gatehouse's north-west wall, the roofline of a now-vanished building can still be seen. The castle's keep was located approximately further west at the other end of the bailey. The only elements of it now remaining are fragments of vaulted cellars or undercrofts, the largest of which measures some by .
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The house originated as two town houses which were built on medieval undercrofts. It was rebuilt during the 17th century when the two buildings were converted into one. The rebuilt house broke with the medieval fashion of having the main residential accommodation in a great hall at the row level; instead the principal living accommodation was in two "elegant chambers" in the floor above the row. The house has been associated with George Lloyd, who was Bishop of Chester from 1605 to 1615.
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The buildings were set back from the street, a footpath passed in front of them, and wheeled vehicles passed along the street below. In time, the properties were improved and, possibly during the 13th century, cellars or undercrofts were excavated in the debris beneath them. When the buildings were further improved, upper stories were built which overlapped the lower storey, providing a covered walkway. Stalls or shelves were added on the street side of the walkway for the display of goods, and so the system of Rows was developed.
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At Praeneste during the early Imperial period, the sanctuary of Fortuna was enlarged and elaborated, the natural slope being shaped into a series of terraces linked by stairs. Steep ground at Powys Castle, Mid Wales, falls away in a series of terraces, some supported on vaulted undercrofts. The imperial villas at Capri were built to take advantage of varied terraces. At the seaside Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, the villa gardens of Julius Caesar's father-in-law fell away in a series of terraces, giving pleasant and varied views of the Bay of Naples.
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Coorparoo State School is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a Queensland state school with later modifications. These include: teaching buildings constructed to individual designs; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The urban brick school buildings are intact, excellent examples of individually designed buildings of their type. They demonstrate the principal characteristics through their highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts used as open play spaces and for additional rooms; loadbearing, masonry construction, with face brick piers to undercroft spaces; and roof fleches.
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These include: teaching buildings constructed to individual designs; and generous, landscaped sites, with mature trees, assembly and play areas, and sporting facilities. The urban brick school buildings are intact, excellent examples of individually designed urban brick school buildings. They demonstrate the principal characteristics of this type through their highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts used as open play spaces and understoreys for additional classrooms; loadbearing, masonry construction, with face brick piers to undercroft spaces; and roof fleches. They demonstrate use of the stylistic features of their era, which determined their roof form, decorative treatment and joinery.
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The partitions in the male and female toilets are marble and the original timber doors and hardware are in good order. In addition to the existing original timber handrail, a new brass handrail was added in 1985 to match the style of the handrail in the stairwell to the "Hall of Memory". ;Undercroft and vertical security screens The undercrofts are located under the external stairs leading to the podium level of the memorial. Originally intended for storage spaces for the offices of the RSL and the TB and Limbless Associations, they were largely unusable until 1992 when a water proof membrane was installed over the external stairs to deal with the damp and water ingress issues.
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The building demonstrates the principal characteristics of an urban brick school building through its highset form; linear layout, with classrooms and teachers rooms accessed by verandahs; undercrofts used as open play spaces and additional classrooms; loadbearing, masonry construction, with face brick piers to undercroft spaces; gable or Dutch-gable roofs with roof fleches; and decorative timbers to verandahs, window hoods and gablets. It demonstrates use of the stylistic features of its era, which determined roof form, decorative treatment and joinery. Typically, urban brick school buildings are configured to create central courtyards, and are located in suburban areas that were growing at the time of their construction. The open-air annexe is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type.
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The walls, towers, vaulted undercrofts, cisterns, and residential buildings are carefully adapted into the folds of the lofty outcrop of limestone. The vast majority of these constructions are built with well-cut rusticated ashlar, a masonry typical of Armenian fortifications. There are fragments of Byzantine walls as well as an entrance corridor at the southeast which was built during the Mamluk occupation and has an inscription in Arabic. Because of its strategic location, Sis has indivisibility with the castles at Andıl, Anazarbus, and Tumlu. Directly below the castle outcrop at the southeast is a large terrace which has the remains of several important churches and chapels in the Compound of the Patriarchs, including the basilica of St. Sophia, built by King Het‛um I, and the 18th-century church of St. Gregory the Illuminator.
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Chester has suffered from a series of fires. In 1278 the fire was so severe that almost the entire town within the walls was destroyed. It has been suggested that following this fire, the owners were ordered to make their ground floors fireproof, leading to the stone-lined undercrofts. From this, the suggestion has been made that there was "a general undertaking by the citizens of Chester ... to improve the commercial potential of their property by providing two-level access for customers". Daniel Defoe, writing around 1724 in A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, describes the Rows of Chester as “long galleries, up one pair of stairs, which run along the side of the streets, before all the houses, though joined to them, and is pretended, they are to keep the people dry in walking along.
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Although there were no scientific elements to its design, it was almost impregnable, and in 1187 Saladin chose to lay siege to the castle and starve out its garrison rather than risk an assault. During the late 11th and 12th centuries in what is now south-central Turkey the Hospitallers, Teutonic Knights and Templars established themselves in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, where they discovered an extensive network of sophisticated fortifications which had a profound impact on the architecture of Crusader castles. Most of the Armenian military sites in Cilicia are characterized by: multiple bailey walls laid with irregular plans to follow the sinuosities of the outcrops; rounded and especially horseshoe-shaped towers; finely-cut often rusticated ashlar facing stones with intricate poured cores; concealed postern gates and complex bent entrances with slot machicolations; embrasured loopholes for archers; barrel, pointed or groined vaults over undercrofts, gates and chapels; and cisterns with elaborate scarped drains. Civilian settlement are often found in the immediate proximity of these fortifications.Edwards, Robert W., “Settlements and Toponymy in Armenian Cilicia,” Revue des Études Arméniennes 24, 1993, pp.181-204.
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Anavarza’s upper city Anavarza’s upper city In the foreground: Some remains of the burial church of the Armenian kings, 12th century Anavarza’s castle Its great natural strength and situation, not far from the mouth of the Sis pass, and near the great road which debouched from the Cilician Gates, made Anazarbus play a considerable part in the struggles between the Eastern Roman Empire and the early Muslim invaders. It had been rebuilt by Harun al-Rashid in 796, refortified at great expense by the Hamdanid Sayf al-Dawla (mid-10th century) and again destroyed in 962 by Nikephoros II Phokas. In late 1097 or early 1098 it was captured by the armies of the First Crusade and was incorporated into Bohemond's Principality of Antioch. The Crusaders are probably responsible for the construction of an impressive donjon atop the center of the outcrop. Most of the remaining fortifications, including the curtain walls, massive horse- shaped towers, undercrofts, cisterns, and free-standing structures date from the Armenian periods of occupation, which began with the arrival of the Rubenid Baron T‛oros I, .
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