Listed Building: QUEEN HOTEL INCLUDING FORMER STABLE WING AND RAILINGS (1375751)

CHESTER CITY (EM) SJ4166 CITY ROAD 1932-1/6/49 (East side) 10/01/72 Queen Hotel including former stable wing and railings (Formerly Listed as: CITY ROAD Queen Hotel) (Formerly Listed as: CITY ROAD Stables to Queen Hotel) II Hotel. 1860, damaged by fire 1861, rebuilt to same plan 1862. Brick and stucco; grey slate roof. EXTERIOR: basement and 4 storeys; hotel entrance in front of 11 windows to Station Road; one window to rounded corner, 8 windows to main block and 10 in lower south wing, probably undamaged by fire, to City Road. Quarry pavement to area; rusticated face to basement has 6-pane recessed sashes and double service doors. Rusticated half-arch bridging area carries flight of 7 stone steps and landing to projecting Corinthian-columned porch; double 2-panel doors in architrave. Ground floor windows formerly 11-pane including round-arched fans are now largely 2-pane; ornate panels beneath windows; sillband on consoles; ornate pilasters; architraves and ornate keystones to windows. Statue of Queen Victoria by Thornycroft above porch. Rusticated quoins to each upper storey. First floor has tripartite sash in ornate case above porch; modillion floorband; sillband on paired plinths beneath each, now 2-pane, sash in pedimented case. Second floor string; 2-pane sashes in segmental-arched openings with eared architraves, also shouldered to pair of sashes over entrance. The third floor string has consoles and modillion cornice; tall tripartite sashes in top-hamper to entrance bay; other windows similar to those of second floor. 6 ridge chimneys have moulded stucco caps with bold cornices. The rounded corner to City Road and Station Road has a tripartite sash to each storey. A wrought-iron bracket to hanging sign. The City Road face has similar detailing to that to Station Road, but with an added or modified projecting porch to bar lounge in Art Deco manner, with stone steps to each side. The detailing of the south wing is similar, but a little smaller in scale and the brickwork less fine. The rear face to the hotel garden is of a piece, but more simply expressed. The former stable wing, now containing ancillary rooms, links the hotel to the Railway Station, Station Road (qv). One storey; coach archway has simple jambs and segmental arch with rusticated voussoirs. Architrave, frieze and cornice; hipped grey slate roof. The 4 bays right of archway and 2 bays to left have round-arched fixed lights of 6 and 4 panes plus 4 panes in fans; sillband and impost-band. Flight of 7 quadrant steps to entrance at corner with hotel has cast-iron railing and pilaster case to replaced door; a radial-bar semicircular window. INTERIOR of hotel retains many features. Hall has ornate cornice and dado. The 4-storey open-well stair has round cast-iron columns to well, ornate cast-iron balustrade, curtail step with rose, stone steps and niches with statues. Marble floor to reception hall. Classical cases to doors; some doors of 4 fielded panels. The Garden Room has columns and some cornices. The Albert Room giving onto the street corner is largely intact with dado, panels above, fireplace, overmantel and ceiling cornice. The south wing has oval geometrical stair through 3 storeys with open string, shaped brackets, rose, moulded balusters and swept rail. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: stone plinth and cast-iron spear railings to area before both faces of main block. HISTORICAL NOTE: when first built the hotel had 2 tall viewing-platforms built above the roof, which residents could climb to have a panoramic view of the historic city (c.f. the approximately contemporary Prospect House, High Street, Malpas C.P.) (Hughes T: The Stranger's Handbook: Chester: 1859-1869). Listing NGR: SJ4130766907