Council House and Attached Railings and Piers
COUNCIL HOUSE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS AND PIERS, COLLEGE GREEN
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1282341
- Date first listed:
- 19-Mar-1981
- List Entry Name:
- Council House and Attached Railings and Piers
- Statutory Address:
- COUNCIL HOUSE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS AND PIERS, COLLEGE GREEN
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-06-30
- Reference:
- IOE01/11852/28
- Rights:
- © Ms Ruth Povey. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1282341
- Date first listed:
- 19-Mar-1981
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 30-Dec-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Council House and Attached Railings and Piers
- Statutory Address 1:
- COUNCIL HOUSE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS AND PIERS, COLLEGE GREEN
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- COUNCIL HOUSE AND ATTACHED RAILINGS AND PIERS, COLLEGE GREEN
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- City of Bristol (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- ST 58261 72795
Details
ST5872NW
901-1/15/72
BRISTOL,
COLLEGE GREEN (West side),
Council House and attached railings and piers
(Formerly Listed as:
COLLEGE GREEN
The Council House)
19/03/81
II*
Council house. 1935-1952. By Vincent Harris. Concrete frame
clad with very wide, thin bricks, with Portland stone
dressings and a leaded hipped roof. Concave axial double-depth
plan. Neo-Georgian style.
2 storeys, attic and basement; 38-window range. A very wide,
concave bowed front has a stone plinth, first-floor plat band,
moulded coping in front of the recessed attic. Full-height
porte cocheres to each end, similar 2-storey one to central
main entrance. Outer ones have full-height semicircular
arches, single-storey side ones, to semicircular-arched
doorways with 2-leaf doors swept down to the centre, and
first-floor windows with Corinthian columns to pediments on
balconies with balustrades. The middle porte cochere is almost
detached, with an octagonal base to an ashlar dome,
semicircular arches to 3 sides, and blind flanking blocks 4
windows wide. 6/6-pane horned sashes in exposed frames,
alternate 3 windows on the ground floor have moulded stone
architraves. A very steep and high roof with gilded unicorns
to the corners of the end blocks. The rear elevation has
2-storey tetrastyle-in-antis loggias at the ends, linked by
pilastrades round to the central projecting block, which has a
pilastrade below very large 25/25-pane sashes, and flanking
towers with McFall sculptures on top.
INTERIOR: sparsely decorated in monumental manner and faced in
plain ashlar; details include a central axial passage, and
good lamps in the entrance lobby, which has a marble floor;
complete original fittings throughout, those to the Committee
Rooms being of particular note; horological clock in entrance
hall; painted ceilings in the Council Room by John Armstrong
on the theme of Bristol and its history, and in the Conference
Room by WT Monnington on the theme of molecular and atomic
fusion.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached railings and octagonal piers to
the ends and ramp in front.
An important work by the most celebrated civic architect of
the first half of the C20.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and
Bristol: London: 1958-: 413).
Listing NGR: ST5825372747
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 379313
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 413
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 17-Jun-2026 at 08:41:09.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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