Numbers 27, 29 And 31 Street The Dublin Packet Public House

Numbers 27, 29 and 31 Street, The Dublin Packet Public House, Chester

A complex of buildings comprising undercrofts, offices, shop and public house, with medieval origins and 20th-century rebuilding. The site consists of sandstone, timber frame with plaster panels, stucco and brick, roofed in clay tiles and slate.

The undercrofts are the oldest element. Two deep, square-plan cellars contain medieval stonework, particularly a sandstone north-south wall at the rear of the west undercroft. The south wall shows the springing for a barrel vault. The Dublin Packet facing Town Hall Square dates from the early 19th century but has been altered. The frontages to Northgate Street were rebuilt in 1902 by John Douglas, then senior partner of Douglas and Minshull.

The east front to Northgate Street displays three storeys and a small attic, with a timber arcade of three bays at ground level opening onto the Row, which sits two steps above pavement level. The arcade has square sandstone plinth posts with moulded corners. Each post supports a shaft carved with a bell-shaped capital in 13th-century manner on every side, and each arch features three crockets. Above the capitals sit niches containing carved figures: three in Elizabethan costume playing musical instruments (one with hands removed), and two above the corner post holding scrolls inscribed "THE KING HIMSELF IS SERVED BY THE FIELD" and "THE PROFIT OF THE EARTH IS FOR ALL", in reference to an effigy of Edward VII above.

The second storey is supported on shaped brackets and features a carved jetty-beam with two rails and shaped upper and lower panels. A two-light mullioned and transomed leaded casement lights Number 29, whilst Number 31 has a four-light leaded oriel with moulded mullions and transom. At the corner with Town Hall Square sits an ornate canopied niche containing a half-size effigy of Edward VII, robed and crowned and bearing the orb.

The third storey is jetted on shaped brackets and displays herringbone and quadrant bracing in the timber panels, two two-light casements (one with an ornate mullion and blank tracery in a bay extending upward), and an attic storey with a five-light casement. A jettied gable rises above with shaped brackets, shaped bargeboards and a carved finial. Number 31's third storey features a four-light leaded casement with colonnettes at centre and sides. The outer colonnettes carry a jettied gable with quatrefoil panels, shaped bargeboards and a lead finial. Behind this stands a fleche with lead-clad finial bearing a gilt weathervane.

The north front of Number 31, facing Town Hall Square, continues the architectural vocabulary of the east front. At Row level sits a sandstone pier behind the arcade. The second storey carries a three-light canted mullioned and transomed oriel with leaded glazing flanked by sidelights, and a square three-light oriel, both ornate. The third storey jetty-beam rests on shaped brackets and bears the Chester City motto "ANTIQUI COLANT ANTIQUUM DIERUM" (The elders worship the Ancient of Days). Two gabled bays rise above: the eastern gable toward the corner contains a five-light leaded casement, a tie-beam dated 1902, quatrefoil panels and colonnettes carrying shaped bargeboard brackets; the western gable is smaller and simpler, with a three-light leaded casement and king-post truss.

The Dublin Packet itself occupies the western section and comprises three storeys. Its first storey is faced in banded stucco with a narrow boarded door having iron hinges and period furniture, windows with round-arched main panes of one, two, one and four lights, and a replaced door in a recessed porch. The rear wing has an early 20th-century brick first storey. The upper storeys are timber-framed with plain St Andrew's Cross bracing on the main front. The second storey features three near-flush four-pane sashes to the main front and a canted oriel to the rear wing. The third storey has three half-dormer two-pane casements to the main front, a jetty with a canted oriel in the rear wing, and a jettied end gable. The Dublin Packet's modest design provides an effective foil to the lavishly detailed work of John Douglas visible in the adjoining sections.

The interiors contain two deep square-plan undercrofts with medieval stonework. The stair and some doors to upper storey rooms facing Northgate Street are by Douglas. The upper storeys could not be fully inspected at the time of listing. Numbers 5-31 (odd numbers) are collectively known as Saddler's Row and were previously listed by Row numbers rather than street numbers.