This detail from the 1875 Chester OS map shows us the area around the Northgate.

At the top right, next to the gate, is The Grosvenor Arms (no 132). It can be seen on the right of our photograph, which was taken in 1907. An earlier, timber-built tavern stood on this spot in the 18th century known as The Hen & Chickens which was said, in the words of historian and guide Thomas Hughes, to "have reaped golden harvests when, in the days of the old Northgate Prison, unfortunate malefactors suffered, close to this spot, the last penalty of the law at the hands of the public hangman".
This inn was listed by this name in Cowdroy's Directory in 1789 when the licencee was James Clinging. The inn was later entirely rebuilt and renamed, becoming The Grosvenor Arms. In 1840 it is listed as The Grosvenor's Arms Inn, licencee Maria Harper. The licence was withdrawn in 1912 and the inn became a shop; it long housed a branch of Sayer's the Bakers. At the end of 2009, a delicatessen and restaurant expanded into there from their smaller premises next door.
Licencees: 1706 Ellenor Kaye, 1782 James Clinging and John Davis, 1789 James Clinging, 1818-20 Mary Hall, 1822-3 Mary Ball (the same person misspelled?), 1840 Maria Harper, 1846 Thomas Jones, 1850 Henry Davies, 1857-60 Charles Whitlow, 1874 Kate Bradshaw, 1880 Kate Parker (the same Kate married?), 1898 Absalom Hayes (see reader Jacqueline Naylor's interesting letter about him under City Road). He was still there in 1904.

Across the road we see the still-thriving Liverpool Arms ('The LA") and next to this is The Northgate Tavern. In 1856 Thomas Hughes recorded that this was "a step or two northward of The Golden Falcon, occupying, indeed, a portion of the house just treated of". (You can learn more of the Falcon and much else in our first Northgate Street chapter.)
The Northgate Tavern's licencee in 1818 was Robert Woodfine, in 1822-3 William Williams, in 1828 John Wynne, in 1840 Thomas Denson, in 1850 James Ruscoe, in 1857 J Read, in 1898-1910 Mrs Ellen Briggs. Earlier, in 1880, Slater's Directory lists it as simply The Northgate, its licencee being William Lloyd. In 1914 Loftus Hughes was the landlord.

Most of the map is dominated by The Northgate Brewery. You can learn about this and see some interesting photographs of it on its own page in our gallery and in the brewery listings.