Pembertons Parlour

Pemberton’s Parlour, also known as Goblin Tower, is a gazebo dating to 1894, built on the site of a former medieval drum tower which was taken down between 1702 and 1708. The medieval tower had been twice the height of the present structure and was largely rebuilt again in 1894. The gazebo is constructed of red sandstone, with coursed rockfaced and tooled rubble below wall walk level, and ashlar above. The north, outer, side features three cross-loops to the gazebo chamber, a corbelled, feebly crenellated parapet, and two stone water-chutes. The south side, which faces the wall walk, has a wider basket archway leading to a semicircular chamber, three chamfered embrasures to the cross-loops, a flat ceiling with stone corbels, and cast-iron railing with double gates within the archway. Above the archway is a yellow sandstone panel inscribed with a dedication acknowledging repairs to the city walls, and listing mayors of the time, including Thomas Hand, William Earl of Derby, Michael Johnson, Matthew Anderson, Edward Partington, Edward Puleston, Puleston Partington, Humphrey Page, James Mainwaring, Robert Comberbach, William Wilson Alden, Peter Bennett Alden, and Edward Partington. Above the panel, a moulded cornice has a crenellated parapet inscribed "Goblin Tower: Rebuilt 1894". A shallow triangular projection on the south face of the wall indicates the position of the former drum tower's inner side, which had a through walk, two storeys and a fighting platform. The gazebo is named after John Pemberton, mayor of Chester, who used it to supervise work at a nearby rope-walk.