New Prison

This is a four-storey prison, built between 1772 and 1773, and converted to apartments in the 20th century. The design is by Thomas Warr Atwood, with Richard Jones acting as builder, an assistant to Ralph Allen. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with an unseen roof and truncated stacks to the returns.

The building has a double-depth plan with rear additions and a symmetrical five-window façade. The end bays slightly step forward and feature a slightly returned balustraded parapet. Other details include a modillion cornice, a moulded former first-floor sill course, a stepped former ground floor platband, deeply chamfered rustication to the former ground floor, a basement platband, and moulded architraves to the windows. The former second floor has nine-pane sash windows. The former first floor features six/six-pane sash windows with moulded architraves and pediments on shaped consoles. The ground floor has segmental arches to six/three-pane sashes and run-out chamfered arises to plain openings and a 20th-century door. The returns are plain.

Original plans were prepared by Robert Adam in 1771, but the Corporation chose Atwood's stolid Palladian design instead. The site was poorly chosen due to flooding of the basement floor. The foundation stone was laid in 1772, and the prison was completed in 1774, initially standing isolated amongst fields. The original entrance hall was on the first floor, accessed by a balustraded staircase, which was later removed due to alterations to Grove Street’s street level. Originally used for debtors, the prison had comfortable rooms on the ground floor and cells in the basement, with a separate block of solitary cells in the courtyard. A new prison opened in Twerton in 1842, rendering Atwood’s building obsolete. It was subsequently converted to flats around 1975, having previously served as a police barracks, a tenement building, and a hostel for the homeless.