Northgate Street

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The Northgate
The Northgate
Northgate Street
Northgate Street

Northgate Street, along with Bridge Street, Watergate Street and Eastgate Street, is one of the four original streets built inside the Roman fortress of Deva Victrix. All four streets meet at the Cross.

[edit] Interesting and Listed Buildings:

The original Rows in Northgate Street
The original Rows in Northgate Street
  • Commercial News Rooms: 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.
  • Number 16: 10 sandstone hypocaust pillars stand in situ at the north-east corner of the shop.

There is a panoramic view of this part of the street on Chester360.

  • Numbers 21-23: the cellar of No.21 contained a Roman pit; the cellar of No.23 has remains from Roman principia.
  • Numbers 27-31: niches above the capitals on number 27 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. Number 29 bears the Chester City motto "ANTIQUI COLANT ANTIQUUM DIERUM" (The elders worship the Ancient of Days). Number 31 is the Dublin Packet.
  • Number 3: formerly part of the King's School which included the Cathedral Choir School.
  • Numbers 32-34: the building was originally the Chapel of St Nicholas, c1300 for Simon de Albo, abbot of St Werburgh's, Chester; used for a period as the church of the parish of St Oswald; closed as a church and conveyed to the Mayor and Assembly of Chester 1488; altered, with an upper floor inserted, as Commonhall and Wool Hall 1545; used for staging plays from c1750; converted as the New Theatre 1773 and the Theatre Royal 1777-8; converted as hall for concerts and entertainments by James Harrison as the Music Hall 1854-5; used as a cinema mid C20; converted to supermarket, then shops.
  • Chester Library: built in 1914 as the Westminster Coach and Motor Works for J.A Lawton & Co to the designs of the architect Philip H. Lockwood; its shiny pickish-buff terracotta was designed and made by Dennis Ruabon. The building originally stood in John Street.
Watercolour by Louise Rayner
Watercolour by Louise Rayner

Here is a panoramic view from in front of the Town Hall.

  • Number 39: the Coach and Horses: during one of the mystery play seasons, the boy playing Jesus nipped in for a pint during the intermission and (still dressed in white robes) was promptly accosted by the police. He uttered the startling reply "You can't nick me - I'm Jesus". After a further exchange of words he was released.
  • The Abbey Gateway: c1300. The front room above the arch, evidently formerly a robing room, has ranges of cupboards with fielded panels to doors, built against 2 walls; the panel to the upper cupboard above the doorway has an armorial painting inscribed EDMUND CHESTER; the armorial panel immediately north of the doorway is inscribed SAMUEL PEPLOE LLB, Chancellor. The painter was probably of the Randle Holmes family. Virtual Chester has a panoramic view.
  • Phone Boxes: these are the famous red "K6" design of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935. Between 1868 and 1876 his grandfather George Gilbert Scott "almost entirely recased" Chester cathedral. In addition to extensive additions and alterations to the body of the church, Scott remodelled the tower, adding the turrets and crenellations - something which is echoed in his grandson's design for Battersea Power Station.
  • Numbers 53-55: Folliott House, built for James Folliott in 1788 and originally twice as large. Bricked-up former interior windows and doors can still be clearly seen on the blank wall. Folliott may have had some connection with the slave trade as he placed the following newspaper advert in 1770: RUN AWAY - A NEGRO MAN, named HOPE, the Property of Sir James Campbell, Bart. He carried off with him several Things of Value, and was drest in an old Green Shooting Jacket and Waistcoat, a pair of new Leather Breeches, Silver Knee and Shoe-buckles, and an old Gold-lac’d Hat, of his Master’s. He is about Nineteen Years of Age, thin Make, yellowish Complexion, about 5 feet 9 inches high, speaks very good English, and is marked on the right shoulder ISC. Whoever secures him, and lodges him in any Gaol, etc. will receive Five Guineas Reward, from Mr. James Folliott, Chester. The building now houses the Chester Asian Council.
  • Numbers 54-56: the shopfronts of c1900 have wood frames, leaded glazing above the transom with the City Arms of Durham, Salisbury, Newcastle, London, Chester, Carlisle and York.
  • Number 57: The Pied Bull a historic coaching inn. On the pillar at the front of the inn is a 1763 coaching sign giving the distances to London, Worcester, Ludlow, Bristol and Bath.
  • Red Lion: former landlady claimed that the cellar was "definitely haunted".
  • Numbers 63-65: This property is the best example, other than in the Rows, of a medieval town house in Chester. It houses the East Glory restaurant. Until recently it was the "Blue Bell" restaurant. The first record of "The Bell" is in 1399 when it was an inn. The extension at the front was erected in 1684 by Elizabeth Halliwell as a barber's shop, which remained until the 1920s. During the 18th century, this extension also served as a stage coach ticket office. The small window high on the building was used to sell tickets to passengers sitting on top of the coach.
  • Toll Cottage: house and workshop on site of former City gaol.
  • Bridge of Sighs: this footbridge was used to take prisoners from the City gaol (previously on the site of the Toll Collage at No.1 Upper Northgate Street) to the former Chapel of St John in the south wing of St John's Hospital for prayers prior to execution. It has been suggested that friends of such prisoners frequently staged attempts to free them when they were taken for their last walk by the road route. In 1793, in order to foil such attempts, the authorities built this small bridge, seen today without it's rails.

[edit] Further Information

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