Description

CHESTER CITY (IM)

SJ4066SE NORTHGATE STREET AND ROW
595-1/4/313 (East side)
28/07/55 Nos.32 & 34 Street (The Old Music
Hall)
(Formerly Listed as:
ST WERBURGH STREET
(West side)
The Music Hall)

GV II

2 shops, one to Northgate Street and the other back-to-back,
to St Werburgh Street. Except for the modern frontage to
Northgate Street, the building was originally the Chapel of St
Nicholas, c1300 for Simon de Albo, abbot of St Werburgh's,
Chester; used for a period as the church of the parish of St
Oswald; closed as a church and conveyed to the Mayor and
Assembly of Chester 1488; altered, with an upper floor
inserted, as Commonhall and Wool Hall 1545; used for staging
plays from c1750; converted as the New Theatre 1773 and the
Theatre Royal 1777-8; converted as hall for concerts and
entertainments by James Harrison as the Music Hall 1854-5;
used as a cinema mid C20; converted to supermarket, then
shops, later C20. Red squared rubble sandstone and English
garden wall bond brown brick walling; grey slate gabled roofs.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. The medieval sandstone walls of the
former chapel rise 24 feet, raised a further 15 feet in 18
inch brickwork for the theatre 1773; the west wall, now within
Nos 32 & 34 Northgate Street, is covered from view. The former
nave had 5 bays, of which the eastern 3 on the south side are
visible from Music Hall Passage, and 4 bays on the north side,
all but one hidden from public view, can be seen from the rear
fire stair from No.40 Northgate Street (not included). The
basket-arched window openings are blocked in sandstone, with
badly eroded mouldings to jambs and arches visible; 4 blocked
openings remain on the north side, and 2 on the south side
where the east bay is largely rebuilt and the adjoining bay
altered. The upper wall of each side has bricked-up window
openings of Georgian proportions with cambered brick heads
and, on the north side, sandstone sills. The former chancel,
now of one bay, is recessed; the masonry is not toothed-in to
the east of the nave; it has a blocked window, under a
2-centred arch, to each side. For conversion to the Music
Hall, Harrison added the canted east porch with central
doorway and a square-headed window of 2 trefoil-headed lights
in each oblique face; hoodmoulds and a moulded stringcourse

carried up over the door and window opening. Harrison inserted
2 windows similar to those in the porch in the east wall of
the chancel above, and at a higher level a mullioned and
transomed 3-light window.
The face of Nos 32 & 34 to Northgate Street is of no quality
or interest.
INTERIOR: all surfaces are covered, but the outer walls and
the Music Hall roof are probably intact; some plasterwork is
said to survive, though inaccessible. The interior of the
Music Hall is illustrated in Transactions of the Chester
Archaeological Society.
(Cheshire Sites and Monuments Record: Record for Chester City:
Chester: 3007/3/15; Blomfield C: Transactions of the Chester
Society of Archaeologists: Chester: 1854-1857: 251-263).

Listing NGR: SJ4054166387

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Nicholas' Chapel, Chester at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7594913

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments