The Grand Hotel

BRISTOL

ST5873SE BROAD STREET, Centre 901-1/11/537 (North East side) 01/11/66 The Grand Hotel

GV II

Hotel. 1864-9. By Foster and Wood. Limestone ashlar with external and lateral stacks, roof not visible. Rectangular in plan. Italianate Renaissance style. 5 storeys, attic and double basement; 7-window range. A symmetrical front with a 1-window splayed left-hand corner, projecting ground floor, sill bands enriched with acanthus to the 2nd and 3rd floors, a frieze beneath an open 4th-floor eaves gallery with a sill band, a deep bracketed timber cornice and C20 attic storey. The ground floor is articulated by square piers with coved capitals, volute side brackets, and mid C20 glazing with small panes and double plate-glass doors, pedestals above with cast-iron reproduction lamps with spherical glass globes, and cast-iron railing with leaves and flowers between. The first floor has tall semicircular-arched windows with moulded archivolts, panelled pilasters with crocket capitals and plain impost band, the middle former entrance is taller with a hoodmould of palmettes and a coffered soffit, to plate-glass windows. Upper windows have panelled pilaster jambs, semicircular arches on the 2nd floor within rectangular moulded frames with medallions in the spandrels, and flat-headed on the 3rd floor. Plate-glass sashes. 4th-floor open gallery with 3:14:3 columns with foliate capitals, separated by panelled sections, below a deep cornice with paterae and square panels between the brackets. Plain attic. The left return has a shallow ashlar exterior stack from the 2nd floor, and ashlar 1-window section to the left on the gallery, brick the rest with rendered ground floor, and first-floor semicircular arches containing matching arched windows. INTERIOR: extensively altered and refurbished internally; moulded cornices survive, sometimes above suspended ceilings, a central reception room has a black and white marble floor and glazed ceiling, now covered over, and the ballroom is articulated by fluted Ionic pilasters to a coved ceiling; extensive brick vaulted basements on 2 levels, with a C14 well toward the rear. The ground-floor was originally occupied by shops, and the entrance was by a flight of steps up between them to a doorway with a lion sitting in the fanlight. L-shaped in plan, the marble-floored room had a glazed S wall overlooking the graveyard of Christ Church with St Ewen (qv). Carriage access from the left-hand return to rear stables, including a carriage turntable. The roof was pitched with ridge stacks. A striking facade, noted for its Florentine-style eaves balcony. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 355; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 426; The Builder: London: 675).

Listing NGR: ST5887573114