Listed Building: 5 AND 7, KING STREET (1376269)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066NW KING STREET 595-1/1/204 (South side) 10/01/72 Nos.5 AND 7 GV II Town house. Probably later C17, converted to 2 houses c1720 and with some later alterations. Stone-dressed brown brick in irregular bond; grey slate roof has coped gable to street. EXTERIOR: cellar, 2 full storeys, attic storey and loft. Coursed sandstone plinth with unbroken joints beneath window of No.5 and rendered to No.7 has cellar vents; inserted doorway with cambered brick head at each end of front: No.5 has refaced steps to door with a glazed cross-panel over 2 tall panels, with a leaded overlight in a panelled doorcase with a small hood; No.7 has 3 stone steps to a door with 2 flush lower panels, 2 glazed middle panels and 2 fielded upper panels, 3-pane overlight and plain doorcase. Flush stone quoins. No.5 has flush sashes, No.7 replaced windows in little-altered openings: one 12-pane sash under cambered brick head probably of original doorway and one 4-pane sash under inserted cambered head to the first storey; flush second storey floorband; two 12-pane sashes and 2 metal casements to the second storey; flush attic floorband; one 9-pane sash and one wood 4-pane cross-casement to attic; a small 2-pane sash to loft; plain stone coping to full-width gable. The back has a narrow 2-storey gabled rear wing at each end, probably added. One restored nearly flush sash of 12 panes and one of 8 panes to the first storey; the second and attic storey each has a restored 12-pane sash to No.5 and a replaced 4-pane sash to No.7. The loft has a replaced 1-pane window. A central ridge chimney; a small-span roof with ridge parallel with the street rises from each side of the main roof, terminating in a gable chimney. INTERIORS: No.5 has cellar with sandstone winder steps, outer walls of squared rubble sandstone and party wall of brick, all plastered; oak beam front-to-back supported on an inserted circular brick pillar. The hall has a 4-board door to rear on gudgeons; the front room has a corner fireplace with a domed semicircular fire opening and a chamfered cross-beam; the back room has a probably C19 kitchen grate in a brick opening and a roughly-chamfered oak cross-beam. The stair to the second storey is replaced; the front room has a cast-iron grate in a corner fireplace, a chamfered oak cross-beam and exposed joists; the back room has an oak cross-beam and exposed joists. The closed-string stair to the attic has stout square newels and 2 barleysugar balusters per step; the front room has a chamfered lower purlin and a collar-beam of oak, a corner chimney-breast and an inserted stair to the front attic room which has an oak post, 2 unwrought purlins and rafters of oak. No.7 has cellar with sandstone winder steps, coursed rubble sandstone outer walls, party wall to No.5 and arched wine bins of brick, bedrock floor and chamfered oak beam running backward. The first storey front room has oak panelling largely covered, a covered corner fireplace, a chamfered oak cross-beam and a cornice; the back room has a chamfered oak cross-beam. The newel stair with winders at each end of a short straight flight in each storey has turned balusters. The second storey and attic storey rooms have chamfered oak cross-beams; the rear loft (the front loft belonging to No.5) has heavy unwrought purlins, one scarfed, and a diagonally set ridge-tree of oak. Listing NGR: SJ4038766578