Avonbank and Attached Front Garden Walls, Piers and Gates Llanfoist and Attached Front Garden Walls, Piers and Gates

Details

BRISTOL

ST5673NE CLIFTON DOWN, Clifton 901-1/1/746 (North East side) 04/03/77 Avonbank and Llanfoist and attached front garden walls, piers and gates (Formerly Listed as: CLIFTON DOWNS Lanfoist and Avonbank)

GV II

Pair of attached houses, now offices. 1857. By Henry Goodrich. Squared, coursed Carboniferous limestone rubble, with limestone dressings, exterior and party wall stacks and a double-pile pantile hipped roof. Double-depth plan. Italianate style. Each of 3 storeys and basement; 3-window range. A near-symmetrical front divided by a rusticated quoin strip, with taller outer towers set forward with pyramidal roofs, and 2-storey entrance blocks to the ends; rusticated quoins and dressings, vermiculated on the ground floor, string courses at sill height breaking forward over the quoins are incised with Greek key on the first floor, and Vitruvian scroll on the second. The entrance to Llanfoist is in the right return, under a segmental-arched porte-cochere with balusters carried over from Sutton House (qv), with an open segmental arch to a small bayed lobby and semicircular-arched doorway with fanlight and 6-panel door. The entrance to Avonbank in the left-hand block has Gibbs blocks to a segmental arch, and doorway as Llanfoist. Outer first-floor semicircular-arched 2-light windows in square frames with cornices, containing semicircular-arched panes with a round one above, and stone balconies on heavy brackets, with lion heads biting rings. The towers have wide 5-light bays with semicircular-arched windows with carved keys, and ball finials cut through by square sections. Smaller 3-light bows above have panelled pilaster jambs with acanthus capitals and cornices; the second floors of the towers have a frieze incised with Greek key, and moulded eaves and ball finials. The middle windows are as the outer sections, with keyed segmental-arched heads on the second floor. The right return has ground-floor window as the front, and a central semicircular-arched arcades to the first floor. The left return has a central tripartite window with blocked jambs, and a Venetian window above. Rear elevation has a left-hand full-height canted bay, a pedimented section to the right with tripartite windows, and a projected 5-light bay with a copper domed roof. INTERIOR: details of Llanfoist include good Greek Revival-style plaster decoration, with a large lateral stair hall divided each end by a segmental arch, with a good cantilevered stone open-well stair with moulded soffit, wrought-iron barleysugar balusters and a curtail, lit by a lantern with bayleaf decoration; scrolled brackets to a cornice over the entrance doorway; panelled reveals, 6-panel doors, and shutters; marble fire surrounds. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached squared, coursed rubble walls to front garden, battered to the base with bracketed coping, ashlar piers and timber gates with decorative cast-iron panels. Part of a group of 4 imposing houses fronting the Downs. (Gomme A: Street Index of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest: 14).

Listing NGR: ST5668373876

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

379203

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gomme, A, Street Index of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest, (), 14

End of official list entry

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