Stanley Palace

Stanley Palace on Watergate Street, Chester, was built in 1591 as a town house for the lawyer and MP Sir Peter Warburton. The house passed by dowry to the Stanley family of Alderley from 1596, giving the building its present name, and later descended to the Earls of Derby, who acquired it outright in 1889. Its south-west wing was rebuilt in the early eighteenth century and the north wing in 1935, following the partial demolition of earlier ranges. The building is timber-framed on an ashlar sandstone plinth and is Grade II listed, first designated in July 1955. It has since served as apartments, a boys' school and a museum, and is now used as office and meeting space.