Steam Mill Public House And Offices

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