Number 63 And 65 Street The Blue Bell

Two shops and town houses dating from the mid to late 15th century, located on Northgate Street in Chester. Number 63 was long the Blue Bell Public House, while Number 65 has been a shop since the early 19th century. The buildings are now joined as a restaurant.

The structures are timber-framed with sandstone and later brickwork. The fronts are now rendered and painted, with grey slate roofs. The buildings are two storeys high, with cellars beneath. The timber frames of the two houses are separate, situated under parallel roofs with ridges at right angles to the street. The narrow space between them is now occupied by stairs and lobbies that join the buildings together. Two gables face the street.

Number 63 has an open front to the street, with a painted brick pier to the south and an octagonal painted stone column south of centre bearing a plain stone cap. Number 65 has a stall enclosed as a booth between the street and the covered pavement walkway, rendered on its front and sides, with a small canted three-pane oriel window to the street. Behind the pavement walkway, the face is largely painted brick. Number 63 has a framed two-board door and a replaced window of 16 panes with four-panel shutters, plus a replaced window of horizontal proportions in the gable. Number 65 has a boarded door to the pavement, a small one-pane window at centre, and a four-pane sash with six-panel shutter. The buildings feature multiple chimneys: two valley chimneys, a ridge chimney on Number 65, one at the south-west corner of Number 63, and a single-flue chimney at the north-east corner of the front booth to Number 65. The north side shows painted brick with replaced horizontally-sliding sashes to the first storey, and a four-pane casement and flush nine-pane sash in a half-dormer to the second storey.

The interior contains features of considerable architectural interest, particularly in Number 63. The front cellar has coursed rubble sandstone walls with stone steps from the rear and timber ceiling structure; Number 63 also has a later barrel-vaulted rear cellar. The side walls of both storeys were originally studded, with some posts and studs now exposed. Chamfered beams and oak joists survive to the first storey. Large framing is visible in the front wall of both storeys. The north-east corner post in Number 63 has a later console attached.

A broad fireplace on the north side of Number 63 features a sandstone back, old brick cheeks, and an oak bressumer. A late 17th-century newel stair has barleysugar turned balusters to the first three steps and to the landing. A three-board oak door near the stair-head has two planted panels on its outer face and battens on its inner face. A painted stone mantelpiece serves a blocked south-west corner fireplace.

The roof structures are of particular significance. At eaves level, the adjacent roof structures and rafter-ends of Number 65's roof are exposed, as are the former gap between the two houses. The wall-plates are visible; the gable tie-beams are curiously jointed to the corner-posts like wall-plates. Number 63 has two truss-posts on each side. The first internal truss, formerly the central truss of the solar, features a shaped octagonal crown-post braced from the cambered tie-beam and to the principal rafters and crown-purlin. The truss at the back of the former solar is undecorated, with a square post braced from the cambered tie-beam to the crown purlin. The third internal truss, formerly between chamber and hall, is similar but with a less cambered tie-beam. The trusses over Number 65 are less visible and undecorated. This property represents the finest example of a medieval town house in Chester outside of the Rows.