Trafalgar House

Details

BRISTOL

ST5673NE THE PROMENADE, Clifton 901-1/1/1072 (West side) 08/01/59 Trafalgar House (Formerly Listed as: THE PROMENADE, Clifton Down Avonhurst School, Trafalgar House)

GV II*

House, now offices. c1830. Limestone ashlar with rendered ground floor, lateral stacks and hipped and gabled roof, slate to the front and pantiles the rear. Axial double-depth plan. Neoclassical style. 3 storeys; 5-window range. A symmetrical front has a large, 2 storey, 3-window centre set forward, with a pedimented portico on 4 banded square piers to an entablature, with moulded semicircular arches with fluted keys on moulded corbels in between; distyle-in-antis Tuscan colonnade above with panelled square columns at the corners, to an entablature with metopes, and dies with balustrade sections between; plain segmental-arched ground-floor windows, architraves above, to 6/6-pane sashes. Flanking 3-storey towers have pyramidal roofs, set back with rusticated quoins to a banded frieze and bracketed overhanging cornice; ground-floor loggias project to the front and sides, 3 square columns and responds with a balustrade above, open to the left-hand doorway with a raised, battered surround and 2-leaf 8-panel door, and with a C20 door and glazing to the right-hand side; single narrow upper windows with console cornices on the first floor to 2/2-pane sashes, and architraves and sill blocks on the second floor to 1/2-pane sashes. The left return has a rear section with surrounds to blind first- and second-floor windows, and below a semicircular-arched attic window, and a pair of lateral stacks. 3-storey rendered wing to right-hand side with C20 windows. Rear is rendered over Pennant stone basement. INTERIOR: entrance lobby with marble and slate flags, to a 2-storey left-hand stair hall with a good stone cantilevered open-well stair with foliate cast-iron balusters and large curtail, windows with architraves and rope-moulded cills, and a stone fire surround; axial passage with semicircular arches; on the first floor a short stair with curved sides and cast-iron balusters leads from the first-floor landing up to a front lobby, with eared architraves and niches, and the principal front room, with large modillion cornice and coved eaves, and a fine marble fire surround with paired Ionic columns; rear central stone dogleg service stair has cast-iron railings; panelled shutters, and reveals to 6-panel doors. An imaginative and imposing composition. Part of a remarkable group of houses including Engineer's House (qv), Taylor Maxwell House (qv) and Promenade House (qv) extending NW from Litfield House, Litfield Place (qv). Possibly by Charles Underwood. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 267; Mowl T: To Build The Second City: Bristol: 1991-: 162).

Listing NGR: ST5658473590

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

380702

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Mowl, T, To Build a Second City, (1991), 162
Gomme, A H, Jenner, M, Little, B D G, Bristol, An Architectural History, (1979), 267

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.