Numbers 32 And 34 Street The Old Music Hall

Two shops at Numbers 32 and 34 Street (known as The Old Music Hall), with one shop facing Northgate Street and the other facing St Werburgh Street on a back-to-back arrangement.

The building originated as the Chapel of St Nicholas, built around 1300 for Simon de Albo, abbot of St Werburgh's, Chester. It subsequently served as the church of the parish of St Oswald before being closed as a place of worship. In 1488 it was conveyed to the Mayor and Assembly of Chester. The building underwent significant alteration in 1545 when an upper floor was inserted, converting it for use as the Commonhall and Wool Hall. From around 1750 it was used for staging plays. It was converted as the New Theatre in 1773 and became the Theatre Royal in 1777–8. In 1854–5, James Harrison converted it as a hall for concerts and entertainments, renaming it the Music Hall. In the mid-20th century it was used as a cinema, and was later converted to a supermarket before becoming shops in the later 20th century.

The building is constructed of red squared rubble sandstone with English garden wall bond brown brick walling, with grey slate gabled roofs. The exterior displays two storeys. The medieval sandstone walls of the former chapel rise 24 feet and were raised a further 15 feet in 18-inch brickwork during the 1773 theatre conversion; the west wall, now within Numbers 32 and 34 Northgate Street, is obscured from view. The former nave comprised five bays, of which the eastern three on the south side are visible from Music Hall Passage, and four bays on the north side, with all but one hidden from public view but visible from the rear fire stair of Number 40 Northgate Street (not included in this listing). The basket-arched window openings are blocked in sandstone with badly eroded mouldings to jambs and arches still visible; four blocked openings remain on the north side and two on the south side, where the east bay is largely rebuilt and the adjoining bay altered. The upper wall of each side contains bricked-up window openings of Georgian proportions with cambered brick heads and, on the north side, sandstone sills. The former chancel, now comprising one bay, is recessed; the masonry is not toothed-in to the east of the nave. It has a blocked window beneath a two-centred arch on each side. For the conversion to the Music Hall, Harrison added a canted east porch with a central doorway and a square-headed window of two trefoil-headed lights in each oblique face; hoodmoulds and a moulded stringcourse are carried up over the door and window opening. Harrison inserted two windows similar to those in the porch in the east wall of the chancel above, and at a higher level a mullioned and transomed three-light window. The frontage to Northgate Street is of modern construction and is of no architectural quality or interest.

Internally, all surfaces are covered, though the outer walls and the Music Hall roof are probably intact. Some plasterwork is said to survive but is inaccessible. The interior of the Music Hall is illustrated in the Transactions of the Chester Archaeological Society.