Holy Trinity Almshouses and Attached Walls and Railings to Jacob Street

Details

BRISTOL

ST5973SE OLD MARKET STREET, Old Market 901-1/12/1633 (South East side) 07/08/72 Holy Trinity Almshouses and attached walls and railings to Jacob Street (Formerly Listed as: OLD MARKET, Old Market (South side) South Trinity Hospital)

GV II*

Almshouses, now flats. 1402. Founded by John Barstaple. Rebuilt 1857-58 NE block, 1867 chapel and W block, 1881-83 SE block, by Foster and Wood. Squared Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, brick, limestone ashlar ridge, gable and exterior stacks, tiled hipped and gable roofs with decorative ridges. Double-depth plan, parallel ranges of 3 E blocks and 2 W blocks and a chapel to opposite sides of a courtyard. Tudor Revival style, later blocks with Burgundian Gothic influence. 2 storeys. Symmetrically-fronted blocks have coped parapets and gables, mullion and transom Tudor-arched windows with metal casements, label moulds, sill bands and drip courses, oak doors with linenfold panels and carved posts to upper glazing, stacks with corbelled cornices, and much carved decoration. The 1867 NW block (drawings 1864) of 5 gables, the end ones projecting with finials; entrances in the angles with the end gables have steeply pitched porches with carved oak sides and steps up. 2 cross windows to the middle gable, 3-light windows to the others, those at the ends with trefoil heads and sunken traceried panels above and shield label stops inscribed JB; carved animals link the string across the downpipes, and first-floor corner gargoyles. Fine rear elevation has end gables and a central section set back to form a small courtyard, with wide arches to dogleg stairs at either side, flanking stout columns to a bracketed gallery on 3 sides beneath extended eaves, with traceried panels. The 1867 SW block has projecting gabled ends and a central bay with brick between, and linked by galleries below the sprocketed eaves; canted outer bays with balustrades and trefoil-headed windows; middle full-height bay has full-width 5-light windows, and a timber-framed gable with brick infill; right-hand doors below the galleries with left-hand 3-light windows. The rear has a crenellated right-hand block and 4 gables, the left-hand pair separated by the eaves extending through the parapet over 2 carved oak open arches. The E range is 2 linked blocks: 1881 SE block mirrors that opposite, but crenellated right end block, and good, carved, open oak stair turret to the middle, with spiral stairs to gallery and a conical roof with lead finial. Rear elevation has 4 projecting gables with cross windows and 4-light windows between; in the end elevation is a canted bay. The 1858 NE block almost mirrors that opposite, with single pitched canopy to central doorway, taller stacks and linking block to S. The rear elevation has a central projecting gable with diagonal buttresses, arrow slits on ground floor, 3-light first-floor windows, and exterior stack to left. At the N end is an asymmetrical block fronting Old Market Street, with a right-hand entrance and pitched canopy beneath a 4-light window, and a central square stair turret; in the end gable is a canted bay beneath a 3-light window and panel inscribed FOUNDED BY JOHN BARSTAPLE/ REBUILT MDCCCLVII. The road front has 2 projecting gables with cross windows and a large exterior stack to the right. The chapel has a 3-light 'E' window with Perpendicular tracery and an ogee hood, with crocketed niches either side and above; 5-bay 'N' side has a battered lower wall, developing buttresses between 4-light aisle windows under an ashlar parapet, and a gabled right-hand cross wing with 2-light window; 3 clerestory windows have 3 lights, a wide stack to the right, above a bellcote to the back of the cross wing. 4-light 'N' window with rectilinear tracery. From the 'N' gable a revetment wall extends along the Jacob Street elevation of the W range, with a plinth and 2 brick sections with quatrefoils and wrought-iron stanchions and braces. INTERIOR: chapel has a glazed tiled E end, painted inscription at the top of the wall, and a C20 mezzanine above angel corbels. Flats have open-well stairs with chamfered balusters and ball finial newels, half-glazed panelled doors with wrought-iron studs, built-in shelves and cupboards, and open ceiling joists. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached walls and railings on curved brackets enclose the galleried courtyard to Jacob Street, with 2 good wrought-iron lamp baskets hanging over the gallery stairs, and also the area to the SW. HISTORICAL NOTE: the design of the almshouses became more French-influenced during their reconstruction, and shares some features, such as the open spiral stair, with the Fosters Almshouses (qv) of 1861.

Listing NGR: ST5978673162

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