Number 1 Street The City Club

Club premises originally constituted as the Commercial Newsroom, formerly with two shops beneath, now a restaurant. Built in 1807 by Thomas Harrison. Yellow ashlar forms the front elevation with Flemish bond brown brick to the sides and rear; the low-pitched roof is concealed.

The building presents 2 storeys to the front and 3 to the back. The front elevation features a rusticated arcade of 3 bays with a shopfront behind; the massive piers have plinths, fluted friezes and moulded cornices carrying segmental arches with carved keystones projecting as consoles to support the second storey plinth. The second storey displays 4 Ionic half-columns and 3 tall sashes of 24 panes surmounted by recessed carved panels, with a pediment above architrave and frieze; rusticated cornices with returned corners crown the composition.

The south side contains 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, with a cellar door of 4 broad boards in the passage.

The west face to St Peter's Churchyard features 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 and leaded overlight, set in a case with architrave, frieze and projecting cornice hood. A new entrance was inserted north of the original doorway in 1986, similarly detailed but with round arch and fanlight in the case. South of the original doorway lies a bricked-up window-opening with gauged brick flat arch to the first storey, forming a semi-basement at the rear; a similar blocked opening exists between the two 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, with a stone cornice to the sides and rear.

The interior of the first storey is largely covered or destroyed. Each entrance from St Peter's Churchyard leads by an altered straight flight of stairs to the Club on the second storey, opening onto a central passage parallel with the front. From this passage, 3 oak doorways lead to the former News Room, now the billiards room, measuring 45 feet by 26 feet and occupying the full width of the building at the front. The central doorway features double doors of 3 margined panels opening outward in a panelled case with entablature and, within 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 displays a richly carved fire surround with corner terms; the south fireplace has a bolection surround. Patterned panelling beneath a dado rail, panels and panelled shutters in embrasures, an enriched frieze and moulded cornice complete the scheme; the ceiling is a shallow panelled barrel-vault parallel with the front.

Small rooms to the rear of the 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, drawing inspiration from the great hall of the Leche House at No.21 Watergate Street Row. The oak doorway has a replaced glazed door in a case with shouldered architrave and Ionic pilasters bearing a segmental pediment. Three rows of panelling sit beneath a high dado rail. Two fireplaces with shouldered architraves have overmantels with 3 round-arched panels between colonnettes of Ionic derivation, all executed in oak; the architrave, enriched frieze and cornice feature alternating medallions decorated with the Cheshire Sheaf and the Club's initials CCC. Four false hammerbeam trusses of painted timber span the space.

A straight stair from the rear of the passage leads to the third storey, with closed string, turned newels, paired balusters with open panels and swept handrail. The 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 facsimile new details; a door of 6 margined panels; frieze and cornice with an inserted curve to the north end; and a ceiling of small interlocking panels.

Historically, 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 previously stood on this site; the Committee subsequently built the Commercial Tavern, now the Commercial Hotel in St Peter's Churchyard, to replace it.