1,3 And 4, Unity Street

BRISTOL

ST5872NW UNITY STREET 901-1/15/307 (North West side) 08/01/59 Nos.1, 3 AND 4 (Formerly Listed as: UNITY STREET Nos.1 AND 3-9 (Consecutive))

GV II

Terrace of 3 houses, now offices. c1742. Possibly by James Paty the Elder. Limestone ashlar with brick party wall stacks and a pantile hipped roof. Double-depth plan. Palladian, mid Georgian style. Symmetrically-planned group each of 3 storeys, attic and basement; 5-window middle and 3-window outer ranges. Rusticated pilaster strips to party walls, cornice and parapet, and a rusticated ground floor to a plat band. The middle house is 1:3:1, with the rusticated quoins to a pedimented centre broken forward; a central doorway with blocked Ionic pilasters to a pulvinated frieze and pediment, rectangular overlight and 8-panel door. Outer houses have left-hand semicircular-arched doorways, with similar surrounds to the centre, fanlight and 6-panel doors. C20 plate-glass shop fronts; architraves with sill blocks to Nos 2 & 3, plain, segmental-arched heads to No.1, to 6/6-pane sashes and 3/6-pane second floor sashes; 2 hipped dormers. The rear elevation to No.4 has an early C19 addition of 6 Doric columns to an entablature with metopes. INTERIOR: No.1, entrance hall with a panelled division from front room, a semicircular arch with panelled reveals to a side dogleg stair with column-on-vase balusters, a moulded ramped rail and panelled wainscot; 6-panel doors and panelled shutters; fireplaces and panelled shutters. HISTORICAL NOTE: named after the reconciliation between George II and Frederick, Prince of Wales. Probably the earliest of a group including Nos 5-9 (qv), the early Palladian facades setting a trend which remained influential into the C19. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 210).

Listing NGR: ST5835172884