Dolphin House And Colston House And Attached Front Railings

A pair of houses dating to 1905, likely designed by WH Watkins. The houses are constructed of red brick with limestone and roughcast dressings, a rendered brick party wall, lateral stacks, and a Cornish slate roof, with asbestos slates replacing the original on the right-hand side. They are built in a Queen Anne style.

The houses are two storeys and have an attic; the front facade has a four-window range. They feature asymmetrical gables with overhanging eaves, barge boards, and finials. The central doorway has a keyed, four-centred arch leading to tiled lobbies and recessed, half-glazed doors. The ground floor has stone sill and lintel bands with stone mullion-and-transom windows of four lights in the middle and three lights to the outer windows. The gables have five-light oriels with ogee bases and close studding above. The recessed central section has canted, four-light bays rising from ground-floor pent roofs with raised dentil cornices, topped with three-light domers and small centre gables, all featuring six-pane casements. Downpipes to the inside of the entrances have dated hoppers. Returns in hard red brick include large dormers below the ridge. The interior is reported to retain period panelling and doors.

Attached to number 25 is a front garden with wooden rails, incorporating heart-shaped holes in the uprights.

The houses demonstrate a well-considered composition, with a good use of materials in a style uncommon for domestic buildings in Bristol. Watkins also designed listed tram stations in Avonmouth and Westbury in a similar style.