23 And 25, King Street

Two small town houses at 23 and 25 King Street, Chester, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, with later alterations. They are built in brown brick laid in irregular bond with grey slate roofs that run parallel to the street.

The buildings comprise cellars, two storeys and attics. No.25 has a flush sandstone plinth, and both houses feature a plain three-course second storey floor band. Originally, the houses had a central pair of doorways with cambered heads, but these have been bricked up and replaced by entrances at each end of the frontage. No.23's entrance has a door of four fielded panels above two flush panels in a replaced doorcase with a cornice; No.25's entrance has a replaced door of four fielded panels with a plain overlight beneath a cambered head.

Windows are flush and nearly flush sashes with painted stone sills. No.23 has one window of 16 panes to the first and second storeys, and two windows of 12 panes to the attic storey. No.25 has four-pane sashes: one to the first storey, two to the second storey, and two in gabled half-dormers to the third storey. Ridge chimneys sit between the houses and on the west gable of No.25.

The rear of No.23 has a small lean-to outshut with four-pane flush sashes. No.25's rear elevation features recessed four-pane sashes with stone sills and cambered brick heads to the first and second storeys, and a four-pane half-dormer to the third storey. A rear wing to the west of No.25 has no features of special interest.

Interior of No.23: A brick cellar is accessed by stone steps. The narrow hall contains some squared rubble sandstone within the party wall shared with No.21, and a four-board cellar door; other doors have been replaced. The front room contains an oak inglenook bressumer against the west wall; the back room has a corner chimney breast. The main staircase has a closed string, square newel, and two vase balusters per step. The partition between the landing and rear bedroom is oak-framed. The front bedroom has a five-panel door and a chamfered oak beam; the back room has a corner chimney breast. An oak lintel spans the opening to a rear wing which has no visible features of interest. A stair to the attic storey is similar in design to that below.

Interior of No.25: A brick cellar lies beneath the rear room, accessed by stone steps. The narrow hall has a four-board cellar door and a replaced four-fielded-panel door to the front room, which contains a chamfered oak bressumer to an inglenook positioned back-to-back with that of No.23. A probably inserted base of a corner fireplace is visible in the ceiling above, with exposed joists. A two-panel door leads to the back room, which has a corner fireplace and exposed joists. A door to the rear is of four broad boards, with the yard door framed in two fielded panels, probably of oak. The staircase has a closed string, square newel, and two vase balusters per step. The second storey rooms feature broad-board floors; the front room has a chamfered oak cross-beam and a corner fireplace, with replaced four-panel doors. The stair to the third storey matches those below. The front and back rooms have doors of four broad boards on gudgeon hinges, corner fireplaces, and oak purlins, that to the front room being chamfered.

The interior arrangements suggest the late 18th-century replanning of baffle-entry houses, originally of late 17th-century date.