Elton House

Elton House

A house, now a house and shop, located on the west side of Abbey Street. Built in 1699, with alterations made in the mid-18th century and subsequently.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof. It is three storeys tall with attics and a basement, and originally may have comprised a pair of early 18th-century houses on a double-depth plan. An additional part on the left is now obscured by the adjacent Crystal Palace Public House.

The basement level features two casements in moulded frames. The ground floor displays one late 18th-century six-over-six sash window in a dressed stone surround to the left of an eight-panel door with two glazed panels, accessed by a small flight of steps. To the right stands a double-fronted shop front dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, with bowed six-by-four windows flanking a part-glazed door reached by steps, topped by a rectangular light and a continuous wavy fascia. The first and second floors each have six evenly spaced two-over-two sash windows of narrow early 18th-century proportions. The building is topped by a cornice and parapet with a mansard roof containing four dormers arranged in a one-two-one pattern. Ashlar end stacks with chimney pots rise from the roof; these arrangements may originally have belonged to a handed pair. The rear elevation, which was not inspected during listing, is reported to feature a gable and early 18th-century fenestration.

The interior was not formally inspected, but its history and details are significant. The house takes its name from its mid-18th-century owners, Jacob and Elizabeth Elton. The site represents a microcosm of changes undergone by the city from Roman times to the present day. Excavations in 1981 revealed a Roman tessellated pavement extending north from beneath the adjacent public house, and a medieval burial site. The irregular ground plan follows earlier boundaries, probably relating to the late Saxon church of St James, which was incorporated into the Bishop's Close in the 12th century. This became the bishop's private chapel when a new church was built from 1279 outside the Close; the site was later occupied by the 18th-century St James's Church.

The front part was developed in 1699 as two houses, each one room deep, by Edward Marchant, a mason and building contractor. The shell of this smaller building remains visible in the basement and lower two floors of the present building. In the basement front south room is a stone range featuring a fine Baroque stone buffet with a shell hood set into raised and fielded panelling. An elaborate external doorcase in the front basement suggests that the ground level rose to Abbey Green in the mid-18th century.

In the early 18th century, north and south wings were added at the rear. These have gables but late 18th-century sash windows. The north wing contains good bolection-moulded stone fire surrounds. In 1749, Bristol residents Jacob and Elizabeth Elton purchased the lease from the Duke of Kingston, presumably as lodgings for visitors. Shortly afterwards, the recess between the wings was infilled with a broad staircase, rounded at the half-landing to accommodate a sedan chair but without a protruding rear bay. The heavy glazing bars are original. The street frontage was given an ashlar façade with plain surrounds. Around 1800, a double-bowed shop front was added to the north-east frontage, and further alterations and extensions were made to the stairwell and the north and south wings.

In the 19th century, the area ceased to be fashionable and major alterations ceased. The house was donated to the Landmark Trust in 1982 and was sensitively repaired with minimal intervention by Peter Bird of Caroe & Partners. The façade was deliberately left uncleaned.