Description

CHESTER CITY (EM)

SJ4166 CANAL SIDE
1932-1/6/28 (South side)
01/07/85 Steam Mill Public House and Offices
(Formerly Listed as:
CANAL SIDE
Milns Seed Warehouse)

GV II

Warehouse. 1834 post-fire rebuilding with later C19 reworking
and C20 additions. English bond brick, stone sills with Welsh
slate roofs.
PLAN/EXTERIOR: rectangular site with complex massing of
storage structures culminating in substantial central silo
with Romanesque-style detailing: blind 4-bay brick banded with
Lombard banded north and south facades, and prominent eastern
flat-topped rectangular tower with STEAM MILL formerly MILNS
SEEDS, painted above 3-bay blind, recessed, pilastered
brickwork to east and west; 2 eastern bays to north and south.
Apex has corbelled machicolation.
Canal Side facade has central 5-bay, 5-storey gable end block
with 5-light round-headed apex window. Ground floor has
entrances in bays 1 and 4 and blocked windows. Bays 1 and 2
altered; bays 3-5 and stories 2-5 a giant order of 12-pane
windows set in recessed round-headed surface divided at each
bay by pilasters and horizontally at 3rd and 4th storey by a
horizontal brick continuous course. Loading bay 1st floor, 3rd
bay. Attached to later 3 bay, 5-storey gable end to west with
central loading bays now blocked. 5th floor only has
fenestration in recessed round-headed brickwork above
continuous string course separated by pilasters below 3-light
round-headed apex window. 12-bay 6 storey return to Steam Mill
Street.
Chapel Street facade blocked to third storey by later addition
of no special interest. Central gable end of 3-bays with
5-light round-headed apex window identical to canal elevation.
Attached later western gable of 2 bays with 4-light apex
window also identical. All the pilasters to Chapel Street and
Canal Side elevations terminate in plain stone chamfered
strips above course of brick billet.
Savill Street elevation has 4-bay return of central gable with
lower stories obscured by C20 addition of no special interest.
At right angles to street line is 3-bay 3-storey late C19
addition, with C20 top storey, adjacent to late C19
rectangular 2-storey building with a hipped roof and
decorative brick-work frieze. Savill Street facade of 2 bays

with entrance in 2nd bay. Canal side elevation of 3 bays with
central 1st floor loading bay.
All first-floor fenestrations 3-light 30-paned round-headed
stone silled windows beneath round brick relieving arches. The
window heads linked by continuous band of decorative dentilled
brickwork.
INTERIOR not inspected. The interior was notable for a
blown-air seed-transport system upward, and a gravity system
downward, removed on conversion of warehouse to offices.
Equipment was photographed by RCHM.

Listing NGR: SJ4130266610

Recommended Books

• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair