Details
CHESTER CITY (IM)
SJ4066SE NORTHGATE STREET AND ROW
595-1/4/276 (West side)
28/07/55 No.1 Street (The City Club)
(Formerly Listed as:
NORTHGATE STREET
(West side)
No.1)
(Formerly Listed as:
ST PETER'S CHURCHYARD
The City Club)
GV II
Club premises constituted as the Commercial Newsroom, formerly
with two shops beneath, now a restaurant. 1807. By Thomas
Harrison. Yellow ashlar to front and Flemish bond brown brick
to sides and rear; the low-pitched roof is concealed.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys to front, 3 to back. The front has a
rusticated arcade of 3 bays with shopfront of no interest
behind; the massive piers have plinths; fluted friezes and
moulded cornices carrying segmental arches with carved
keystones projecting as consoles to bear the second storey
plinth. The second storey has 4 Ionic half-columns and 3 tall
sashes of 24 panes surmounted by recessed carved panels;
pediment above architrave and frieze; rusticated cornices with
returned corners.
The south side has a 2-panel door in a plain inserted surround
of rustic brick and a 6-pane hopper to the second storey; the
north side, slightly recessed above a rear passage, abuts No.3
Street (qv), with a cellar door of 4 broad boards in the
passage.
The west face to St Peter's Churchyard has the original club
entrance south of centre with recessed double doors, each leaf
with an ornate leaded glazed panel above a bolection-moulded
projecting panel, with a leaded overlight, in a case with
architrave, frieze and projecting cornice hood; the present
entrance was inserted, north, in 1986, similarly detailed but
with round arch and fanlight in the case. South of the
original doorway is a bricked-up window-opening with gauged
brick flat arch to the first storey, at the rear forming a
semi-basement; a similar blocked opening between the 2
doorways. The second storey has a replaced 12-pane recessed
sash and a sash with the upper leaf now a hopper; above the
north doorway is a 4-pane bull's-eye window. The third storey
has three 15-pane recessed sashes; the rear windows have
painted stone sills and wedge lintels of red sandstone; a
stone cornice to sides and rear.
INTERIOR: features in the first storey are largely covered or
destroyed. Each entrance from St Peter's Churchyard has an
altered straight flight of stairs to the Club on the second
storey, giving onto a central passage parallel with the front.
From the passage 3 oak doorways lead to the former News Room,
now the billiards room, 45 feet by 26 feet, which occupies the
full width of the building at the front. The central doorway
has double doors of 3 margined panels, opening outward in a
panelled case with entablature and, to the room, a scrolled
top-hamper dated 1807 bearing a replaced clock; the north
doorway has double doors of 3 margined panels, the upper
panels now glazed; the south doorway has a door of 6 margined
panels with a vertical central reed. The apsidal north wall
has a richly carved fire surround with corner terms; the south
fire has a bolection surround; patterned panelling beneath
dado rail; panels and panelled shutters in embrasures;
enriched frieze and moulded cornice; the ceiling is a shallow
panelled barrel-vault parallel with the front. The small rooms
to rear of passage have oak doors of 6 margined panels.
The dining room, designed to replace the News Room, entered
from the north end of the passage, forms the upper part of
No.3 Street. Built at the expense of Charles Brown in 1898-9
and leased to the Club, it was designed by HW Beswick; his
inspiration was the great hall of the Leche House, No.21
Watergate Street Row (qv). The oak doorway has replaced glazed
door in case with shouldered architrave and Ionic pilasters
bearing a segmental pediment; 3 rows of panelling beneath a
high dado rail; 2 fireplaces with shouldered architraves have
overmantels with 3 round-arched panels between colonnettes of
Ionic derivation, all of oak; architrave, enriched frieze and
cornice have alternating medallions decorated with the
Cheshire Sheaf and the Club's initials CCC; four false
hammerbeam trusses of painted timber.
A straight stair from rear of passage leading to the third
storey, has closed string, turned newels, paired balusters
with open panels and swept handrail. Principal third storey
doors are oak, with 6 fielded panels; the landing has enriched
plaster dado panels; the former rear rooms are thrown together
to form a reading room, with the necessary new details
facsimile; door of 6 margined panels; frieze and cornice with
an inserted curve to north end; ceiling of small interlocking
panels.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the Committee of the Commercial News Room,
which belonged to its proprietors, commissioned the building
and formed the basis from which the present Club developed;
the Sun Inn stood on its site and the Committee built the
Commercial Tavern, now the Commercial Hotel, St Peter's
Churchyard (qv), to take its place.
(Bartholomew City Guides: Harris B: Chester: Edinburgh: 1979-:
62; Improvement Committee Minutes: Chester City Council: MB
1898; History of The City Club, Chester: 1980-).
Listing NGR: SJ4052466318
