Still familiar to shoppers in Chester's Foregate Street, even though it has long ceased serving beer, is The Royal Oak (no. 44).

Its licencee in 1942 was Jasper Eugene Kimpton. (names of later landlords would be appreciated). On the same site formerly stood an inn by the name of The Sign of the Crow which was first mentioned in documents in 1580 when the landlord was William Cotgrave, who was also a fishmonger. A carved date, 1607, appeared on the front of the second building and its name had changed to The Royal Oak by 1703.

The entire inn was once again rebuilt in 1920 and this date, together with the construction date of the first inn- mysteriously altered to 1601- was inscriped on the facade.

The pub sadly closed in the 1980s and it is now a branch of Dixon's, but thankfully retains the old pub name and carved oak tree on its frontage. The Chester historian Frank Simpson wrote in 1926 that at one time there were no less that five public houses adjoining each other on this spot.