Number 51 Street

Number 51 Street is a public house, later converted into an enterprise centre, rebuilt in 1861. It was likely constructed for the Chester Charity Trustees. The building is constructed of yellow sandstone facing orange English garden wall bond brickwork, with a grey slate roof. Originally free-standing, it is now connected by a glazed passage to the Midland Bank buildings at numbers 47 and 53-57 Street, and has direct access at the second storey level from the City Wall.

The lower storey features a sillband, a boarded door within a shoulder-arched opening with sidelights and a mullioned overlight, and six shoulder-arched sashes with two panes each. The second storey has a short stone-slab bridge leading from the City Wall to a doorway with twelve ornate panels, narrow two-pane sidelights, and a mullioned five-pane overlight. A trefoil head is above each pane of the overlight. South of the doorway, a corbelled bay projects, featuring a triple lancet window and single lancets on either side. One lancet window is located north of the doorway. The attic storey has a corbelled bay above the doorway with an arched sash within a case featuring colonnettes, and a broader gable to the south with triple arched sashes. A smaller shoulder-arched sash is positioned between the door bay and the south gable, with a similar sash to the north. The north end has two shoulder-arched sashes and two sashes within yellow brick arched openings. A gabled outshut features two small brick-arched sashes. The second storey has a central stone-arched sash flanked by two similar sashes on each side. The third storey has a pair of stone-arched sashes and a small shoulder-arched sash; all sashes are of two panes. A stone-capped, banded brick ridge chimney is present.

The interior was largely gutted during a conversion in 1978 into offices for the Midland Bank. Previously, the public house contained a room dedicated to the Honourable Incorporation of the King's Arms Kitchen, a social club founded in 1770 or earlier which parodied the Corporation with its own mayor, recorder, sheriffs, town clerk, and regalia. This club was wound up in 1896. The furnishings from this room were transferred to the Grosvenor Museum in Grosvenor Street, Chester, in 1978. Based on stylistic considerations, James Harrison is considered the likely architect, comparable to the design of number 40 Bridge Street and Row.