Bristol Commercial Rooms and Attached Area Railings

Details

BRISTOL

ST5872NE CORN STREET, Centre 901-1/16/567 (North West side) 08/01/59 No.43 Bristol Commercial Rooms and attached area railings (Formerly Listed as: CORN STREET (North side) No.43 Bristol Commercial Rooms)

GV II*

Club, above bank vault now restaurant. 1810. By CA Busby. Sculpture by JG Bubb. Limestone ashlar, roof not visible. Open plan. Neoclassical style. Single storey and basement; 2-window range. A symmetrical front has a pedimented Ionic tetrastyle front, with a recessed centre and single windows each side, a sill band, entablature and blocking course, and tall parapet set back with a dentil cornice and blocking course. 2 doorways have architraves to half-glazed double doors beneath a dentil cornice round the central recess, with a wide panel above of Britannia being brought the 4 corners of the world. The windows have panelled aprons, carved sill blocks, architraves and pediments. Above are 2 female statues flanking Britannia to the middle with a spear and shield. Left-hand marble winder steps down to a basement doorway with a coffered segmental head, marble-lined area in front with green marble pilasters, panelled double doors and overlight; in front are double cast-iron gates with turned balusters, and cartouches inscribed THE OCEAN SAFE DEPOSIT. INTERIOR: large club room with a dentil cornice, rectangular ceiling opening with panelled spandrels to a glazed drum, with caryatids and lattice glazing to a domed ceiling; 2 fire surrounds each side have black reeded jambs to corner roundels, and an Ionic tetrastyle timber screen to the rear; at the S end is a clock, and the N end a matching dial giving wind direction; the doorway into the room has a good shell hood and pediment above. Rear left-hand dining room has a crested cornice and balcony, now floored over, with bowed cast-iron railings, and black marble Egyptian Revival-style fire surround with battered jambs and reeded coved corbels to the mantel shelf; entrance lobby lined with green marble, with brown faience dressings to doorways, and green coffered faience ceiling. Details of the basement include a marble lined and floored lobby with green marble pilasters and architrave to a half-glazed door, a panelled left-hand room with festoon, moulded beams and black and white marble floor, and a steel-lined former security vault to the right-hand side with safe doors. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached front area cast-iron railings with diagonal bars to central circles, and posts for sliding gates. Bristol's first building with Neoclassical awareness of accurate historical precedence, following on from Harrison's Lyceum in Liverpool. Used as club for mercantile interests, hence the wind vane indicator to advise on the arrival of shipping. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 232; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 424).

Listing NGR: ST5879072998

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

379373

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 424
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 232

End of official list entry

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