Description

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SE EASTGATE STREET AND ROW
595-1/4/167 (North side)
No.51 Street

GV II

Formerly known as: King's Arms Kitchen Public House EASTGATE
STREET.
Public house, now enterprise centre. Rebuilt 1861 probably for
the Chester Charity Trustees. Yellow sandstone-dressed orange
English garden wall bond brickwork with grey slate roof.
EXTERIOR: formerly free-standing, now with glazed passage from
Midland Bank Nos 47 & 53-57 Street (qv); direct access at
second storey level from City Wall. The lower storey has
sillband, boarded door in shoulder-arched opening with
sidelights and mullioned overlight and 6 shoulder-arched
2-pane sashes.
The second storey has a short stone-slab bridge from City Wall
to door of 12 ornate panels in shoulder-arched opening with
narrow 2-pane sidelights and mullioned 5-pane overlight, blank
trefoil head over each pane, under a triple arch carried on
four C13-style colonnettes; south of the doorway a corbelled
bay projects with a triple lancet and a single lancet to each
side; one lancet north of the doorway.
The attic storey has a corbelled bay above the doorway, with
an arched sash in case with colonnettes; a similar but broader
gable, south, has triple arched sashes; a small
shoulder-arched sash between door-bay and south gable and a
similar sash to north.
The north end has 2 shoulder-arched sashes, 2 sashes in yellow
brick arched openings and a gabled outshut with 2 small
brick-arched sashes. The second storey has a central
stone-arched sash with 2 similar sashes to each side. The
third storey has a pair of stone-arched sashes and a small
shoulder-arched sash; all sashes are of 2 panes. A
stone-capped banded brick ridge chimney.
INTERIOR: largely gutted when converted in 1978 into offices
for the Midland Bank. The former public house had a room
reserved for the Honourable Incorporation of the King's Arms
Kitchen, a drinking and social club which burlesqued the
Corporation with mayor, recorder, sheriffs, town clerk and
regalia, founded 1770 or earlier and wound up in 1896. The
furnishings of the room were transferred to the Grosvenor
Museum, Grosvenor Street, Chester in 1978.
On stylistic grounds James Harrison looks to be the most
probable architect; cf No.40 Bridge Street and Row (qv) 1858.

(Improvement Committee Minutes: Chester City Council: 19 June:
1861-; Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh:
1979-: 53-4).

Listing NGR: SJ4069566375

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26656867

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living