Fosters Chambers

BRISTOL

ST5873SE SMALL STREET, Centre 901-1/11/629 (North East side) 08/01/59 Nos.16 AND 17 Fosters Chambers (Formerly Listed as: SMALL STREET (North East side) Nos.16 AND 17)

GV II

Pair of attached houses, now offices and restaurant. Formerly a C15 banqueting hall, possibly late C17 front with C18 fenestration, c1846 right-hand elevation by RS Pope and mid C20 ground-floor front. Limestone ashlar ground floor, render above, random limestone ashlar right-hand return, ashlar right-hand exterior stack and double Roman cross gabled and mansard roof. Double-depth plan. 3 storeys, attic and double basement; 4-window range. A symmetrical front has 2 gables, with paired semicircular-arched dorways to the middle and C18-style shop fronts each side with shallow bowed windows set flush with glazing bars, and basement doors below the left-hand one. Horned 6/6-pane sashes in flush frames, set in pairs to each gable, in a panel of raised roughcast with quoin-effect edges; small 2/2-pane attic sashes. The C19 right-hand return has an exterior stack with 3 octagonal moulded stacks to the left of a 4-centre arched doorway with a heavy plank door with moulded rails and strap hinges, a label mould to head stops and foliate spandrels, and FOSTERS CHAMBERS over the doorway. A first-floor arcade of small 4-centre arched windows, and third-floor 5-light mullion window with C20 casements. In the left return is a ground floor C17 two-light mullion window with splayed surround. INTERIOR: formerly a C15 banqueting hall with hammer-beam roof, now gone: some timbers survive with ovolo-moulded possible door frame set in the arched vaults to the rear on the ground floor. Below are three C15 segmental-arched vaults running back from the pavement, with a small lower vault toward the rear. The C19 Chambers has an entrance to a C18-style dogleg stair with stick balusters, column newels and ramped moulded rail. HISTORICAL NOTE: the house of John Foster, Mayor of Bristol 1481, founder of Foster's Almshouses and Chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne. The right-hand return in the manner of the neighbouring Guildhall rebuilt to form an enclosed space in front of it. Much restored externally and altered internally. (Gomme A: Street Index of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest: 62).

Listing NGR: ST5876673089