Governor'S House

CALEDONIAN ROAD (South side)

Governor's House (Formerly Listed as: STUART PLACE Premises occupied by Walters Engineering Ltd)

05/08/75 II

Governor's House to Twerton Gaol now flats. c1842. By GP Manners. MATERIALS: Fine limestone ashlar, slate roofs. STYLE: Classical PLAN: Compact single block, with wide five-bay symmetrical entrance (north) front and three bay returns; main front with the central three bays brought forward. EXTERIOR: Three storeys plus basement, with original glazing bar sashes, six/twelve-pane in raised plat surrounds with eared lintels and projecting keystone. End bays are blank except at ground floor. Second floor sills have brackets, ground and first floor jamb platbands carried straight down. Basement has sixteen-pane sash each side of centre in plain ashlar walling, with two twelve-pane to right. Central recessed tripartite entrance feature has panelled door with transom light and side lights, with four heavy block consoles, and on four stone steps carried over basement area. Ground floor has deep V-joint channelling, with square channelling to first and second floors, and paired giant square Roman Doric pilasters. Between central pairs small single light has been inserted at each level. Base mould to pilasters, threaded sill bands, and cornice on heavy block modillions, with plain blocking course. To left of centre deep ashlar stack. Left and right returns are similarly detailed, with four pilasters, but inserted door to the basement at east end. The rear (south) front simpler, in plain ashlar, in three:one:three bays with glazing bar sashes in raised plat surrounds but no keystones, six/twelve-pane, with simple ground floor string course, and pilaster returns only at each end. Ground floor has three and two windows each side of central pair of panelled doors. INTERIOR: Not inspected. It formerly housed the chapel, chaplain's room, reception and magistrates rooms, the laundry, kitchen etc. which served the cell block to the rear. HISTORY: This is all that remains of Twerton Gaol, the first municipal gaol to be built following the 1835 Prisons Act. Situated some distance from the city to take advantage of a well-ventilated site, its lay-out responded to central government directives. It originally contained one hundred and twenty two individual cells. The stern exterior, in a heavy Palladian idiom, was intended as a stern piece of `architecture parlante'. The prison closed in 1878. SOURCES: Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 537. Listing NGR: ST7367964628