Listed Building: 23 AND 25, KING STREET (1376285)

CHESTER CITY (IM) SJ4066NW KING STREET 595-1/1/211 (South side) 10/01/72 Nos.23 AND 25 GV II 2 small town houses. Late C17 or early C18, altered. Brown brick in irregular bond; grey slate roof has ridge parallel with street. EXTERIOR: cellars, 2 storeys and attics. Flush sandstone plinth to No.25; plain 3-course second storey floor band. The original central pair of doorways, with cambered heads, are bricked up and replaced by an entrance at each end of the front with a door of 4 fielded panels above 2 flush panels in a replaced doorcase with cornice to No.23 and a replaced door of 4 fielded panels with a plain overlight under a cambered head to No.25. Flush and nearly flush sashes with painted stone sills: one of 16 panes to the first and second storeys and 2 of 12 panes to the attic storey of No.23; 4-pane sashes to No.25, one to the first storey, 2 to the second storey and 2 in gabled half-dormers to the third storey. Ridge chimneys between the houses and on the west gable of No.25. Rear: No.23 has a small lean-to roofed outshut and 4-pane flush sashes. No.25 has one recessed 4-pane sash with stone sill and cambered brick head to first and second storeys and a 4-pane half-dormer to the third storey, with a rear wing, west, which has no features of special interest. INTERIORS: No.23 has a brick cellar with stone steps. The narrow hall has some squared rubble sandstone in the party wall with No.21 (qv), a 4-board cellar door; other doors are replaced. The front room has an oak inglenook bressumer against the west wall; the back room has a corner chimney breast. The stair has a closed string, square newel and 2 vase balusters per step; the partition between landing and rear bedroom is oak-framed; 5-panel door to front bedroom which has a chamfered oak beam; the back room has a corner chimney breast; oak lintel over opening to rear wing which has no visible features of interest; stair to attic storey similar to that below. No.25 has brick cellar beneath the rear room, with stone steps. The narrow hall has a door of 4 broad boards to the cellar, a replaced door of 4 fielded panels to the front room which has a chamfered oak bressumer to the inglenook back-to-back with that of No.23, the probably inserted base in the ceiling to a corner fireplace above; and exposed joists; a 2-panel door to the back room which has a corner fireplace and exposed joists; a door to the rear is of 4 broad boards to the hall and framed in 2 fielded panels, probably of oak, to the yard. The stair has closed string, square newel and 2 vase balusters per step. The second storey rooms have broad-board floors; the front room has a chamfered oak cross-beam and a corner fireplace; replaced 4-panel doors. The stair to the third storey is similar to that below; the front and back rooms have doors of 4 broad boards on gudgeon hinges, corner fireplaces and oak purlins, that to the front room chamfered. The interiors suggest the later C18 replanning of baffle-entry houses, probably late C17. Listing NGR: SJ4031066576