Bristol Police Headquarters Fire Station

BRISTOL

ST5873SE BRIDEWELL STREET, Broadmead 901-1/11/475 (East side) 18/05/81 Bristol Police Headquarters and Fire Station (Formerly Listed as: BRIDEWELL STREET, Broadmead Central Police Station and Bristol Police Headquarters)

GV II

Police headquarters and fire station. Dated 1928 on hoppers. By Ivor Jones and Percy Thomas. Limestone ashlar, roof not visible. Axial plan to 3 sides of a triangular courtyard. Stripped Neo-Georgian style with Mannerist detail. 4 storeys; 5-window range. A symmetrical front with 8-window left-hand section curved back, and then sharply curved into 12-window Silver Street elevation, with a fluted frieze and parapet. Banded ground and first floors to a plat band, a large central Mannerist doorway set in a semicircular-arched recess has a moulded architrave with Gibbs blocks and 5 massive stepped keys, to double 24-panel doors, with a fanlight above; a scroll above inscribed POLICE HEADQUARTERS. The left-hand block has six 2-storey vehicle entrances with stepped lintels, paired folding doors with 10 panes and an overlight; the right-hand has a pedestrian doorway set in a timber glazed frame. The 2-window Silver Street corner has an inset drum, taller than the sides, with a scrolled panel inscribed FIRE SERVICE with a shield, and the Silver Street elevation has 6 tall vehicle entrances, and 2 window sections to the left and 4 to the right. Plain windows with metal glazing bar casements. INTERIOR: few decorative elements; incorporated a yard for vehicle washing, and a tower for hose drying. To the same design as the Central Police Station (qv). (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 422; City Building Series: Burrough T H B: Bristol: London: 1970-: 128).

Listing NGR: ST5889073318