Number 57 Street The Pied Bull Hotel

The Pied Bull Hotel, Number 57 Northgate Street, Chester

This Grade II* listed inn probably occupies the site of two medieval tenements. The building dates from the 17th century, with parts refronted in the later 17th century and extended to the rear in the 19th century. It is constructed of brown brick with some sandstone and timber framing, with grey slate roofs featuring two parallel ridges running back from the street.

Exterior

The building has cellars and three storeys. An arcade over the Northgate Street pavement comprises three segmental arches of stone, with two storeys of Flemish bond brickwork above. The rebuilt timber-framed rear face to the arcade features a broad 17th-century door of four oak boards with a planted round-arched panel-frame, mounted on wrought-iron strap hinges. There are replaced small-pane windows with slight bays to each side of the door, and flush sandstone quoins at the north corner to King Street.

The upper storeys have flush quoins, two recessed sashes of 12 panes to the second storey and two of 9 panes to the third storey. Painted stone sills and wedge lintels are present, with a parapet featuring plain stone coping.

The north side facing King Street has brickwork of irregular bond with a three-course band on shaped corbels of brick at each upper floor level; the lower band is doubled above the former piers between arches of window and door openings, now blocked or reduced. The first storey has three old window arches and two door openings—one broad and one narrow. Currently there are two recessed 12-pane sashes with exposed boxes, two smaller inserted small-pane windows, and a three-panel door with leaded glazing in the upper panel, set in a plain doorcase with blocked overlight and a small moulded hood on brackets. The second storey has two 12-pane flush sashes and a flush 9-pane sash under relieving arches, plus four inserted casements. The third storey features a 3-light casement with old leaded glazing in the two upper panes and four inserted casements, with a flush lateral chimney.

The rear extension comprises three builds: the first storey has a blocked arch to a former carriage entrance, the second storey a replaced cross window, and the third storey a casement of two 4-pane lights. No features of special interest are visible further back.

Interior

The full cellars have outer walls of coursed sandstone with some later brick patching. Sub-division of the interior is largely modern, but walls and openings incorporate chamfered oak beams, one cambered with its lower face cut into to increase headroom, and oak posts with some chamfers, one bearing a jowelled head.

Much of the first storey is altered with features masked. The front room to the north contains a 17th-century stone fireplace with moulded reveals, slots perhaps to hold former spit arms, a brick flue and an armorial painting on the overmantel. The front part of the room has small oak panelling, altered, incorporating two cupboards by the fireplace on butterfly hinges.

The 17th-century oak stair is open-well to the second storey and was originally so to the third storey before alteration to a dogleg configuration. It features carved faces to the closed strings, shaped newels and pierced vase splat balusters; the steps are carpeted.

On the second storey, the principal front room to the north has four rows of narrow oak panels surmounted by a broad row, with parts altered. The open fireplace has a sandstone and brick flue, with a painted stone chimney-piece featuring moulded reveals, a depressed arch and two superimposed cornices—the lower on consoles and the upper on bulgy rectangular corbels. A moulded ceiling cornice of oak is present, along with two tongued stop-chamfered beams and three plaster roses; a foliage-and-acorn motif appears at each corner of the plaster ceiling. The front room to the south has a south-east corner flue with a replaced fireplace, a plastered chamfered ceiling beam and a plaster fleur-de-lys at each corner of the ceiling panels. Each front room has a six-panel oak door. Original oak panelling is present in the landing and rear passage, and on the division line between the two former tenements there is oak framing with full-height panels, possibly dating from the 16th century.

The third storey contains large framing now concealed in the south bay, some visible beams and posts, exposed oak joists and a corner flue in the south front room.

Historical Note

The Pied Bull is almost certainly the inn visited by George Borrow, who commented on the strapping chambermaid, remarked on the ale and spat the proffered Cheshire Cheese into the street, as recounted in his work Wild Wales (1862).