Numbers 27, 29 and 31 Street the Dublin Packet Public House

Details

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SE NORTHGATE STREET AND ROW 595-1/4/284 (West side) 10/01/72 Nos.27, 29 & 31 Street (The Dublin Packet Public House) (Formerly Listed as: NORTHGATE STREET (West side) No 31 Row)

GV II*

Undercrofts, offices, shop and public house. Some medieval stonework in undercrofts; the Dublin Packet facing Town Hall Square is probably early C19, altered; the frontages to Northgate Street were rebuilt 1902 by John Douglas, then senior partner of Douglas and Minshull. Sandstone, timber frame with plaster panels, stucco and brick with roofs of clay tiles and slate. EXTERIOR: cellar undercrofts, 3 storeys and a small attic. The east front to Northgate Street has a timber arcade of 3 bays with posts on sandstone plinths to the Row storey, 2 steps above pavement level; the square posts have moulded corners and a shaft with carved bell-shaped capital in C13 manner on every side; each arch has 3 crockets; niches above the capitals contain carved figures, 3 in Elizabethan costume playing instruments, one with hands removed and the 2 above the corner post holding scrolls inscribed, with reference to the effigy of Edward VII above, THE KING HIMSELF IS SERVED BY THE FIELD and THE PROFIT OF THE EARTH IS FOR ALL. Shaped brackets support the carved jetty-beam of the second storey which has 2 rails, shaped lower and upper panels, a 2-light mullioned and transomed leaded casement to No.29, a 4-light leaded oriel with moulded mullions and transom to No.31 and an ornate canopied niche at the corner with Town Hall Square holding a half-size effigy of Edward VII, robed and crowned and bearing the orb. The third storey, jettied on shaped brackets, has herringbone and quadrant-braced panels, two 2-light casements, one having an ornate mullion and blank tracery in a bay carried upwards to the attic storey which has a 5-light casement and a jettied gable with shaped brackets, shaped bargeboards and a carved finial; No.31 has a 4-light leaded casement to the third storey with a colonnette at centre and at each side, the outer ones carrying a jettied gable with quatrefoil panels, shaped bargeboards, a lead finial and, behind, a fleche with a lead-clad finial bearing a gilt weathervane.

The north front of No.31 to Town Hall Square carries through the motifs of the east front, with a sandstone pier at rear of the Row arcade, a 3-light canted mullioned and transomed oriel with leaded glazing and flanked by sidelights, and a square 3-light oriel, both ornate, to the second storey. The third storey jetty-beam on shaped brackets, bearing the Chester City motto ANTIQUI COLANT ANTIQUUM DIERUM (The elders worship the Ancient of Days) supports two gabled bays, that towards the corner, east, having a 5-light leaded casement, a tie-beam dated 1902, quatrefoil panels and colonnettes carrying shaped bargeboard brackets and that to the west smaller and simpler with a 3-light leaded casement and a king-post truss. West of No.31 the main front of the Dublin Packet is of 3 storeys. The first storey is faced in banded stucco with a narrow boarded door having iron hinges and furniture, windows with round-arched main panes of 1-, 2-, 1- and 4-lights and a replaced door in a recessed porch. The rear wing has an early C20 brick first storey. The upper storeys are timber-framed, with plain St Andrew's Cross bracing on the main front. The second storey has 3 near-flush 4-pane sashes to the main front and a canted oriel to the rear wing. The third storey has 3 half-dormer 2-pane casements to the main front, a jetty in the rear wing with a canted oriel and a jettied end gable. The Dublin Packet Public House forms a pleasant, modest foil to the lavishly detailed adjoining work by John Douglas. INTERIORS: the 2 deep undercrofts are square; the sandstone north-south wall at the rear of the west undercroft is medieval; the south wall has the springing for a barrel vault. The stair and some doors to upper storey rooms facing Northgate Street are by Douglas; the upper storeys could not fully be inspected. Nos 5-31 (odd) are collectively known as `Saddler's Row' and were previously listed as Row numbers. (Improvement Committee Minutes: Chester City Council: 1900-1903; Chester Rows Research Project: Harris R: Northgate Street: 1989-).

Listing NGR: SJ4050466385

Legacy

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