Church Of St Thomas Including Wall, Gates And Gateway

BRISTOL

ST5972 ST THOMAS STREET 901-1/42/287 (West side) 08/01/59 Church of St Thomas including wall, gates and gateway (Formerly Listed as: ST THOMAS STREET Church of St Thomas)

II*

Church. C14 tower, nave rebuilt 1791-3 by James Allen. Bath stone ashlar and render, roof not visible. Aisled nave and NW tower. Neoclassical style with a Perpendicular Gothic tower. Chancel gable on a high plinth, with paired Ionic pilasters to an entablature broken by a semicircular archivolt containing a spoked 6-light window, enlarged from the original semicircular one in 1888. Above it is a cherub on folded wings and swag, with panels on either side, and in the pediment above. Chapel either side, that to the S has an Ionic pediment and pilasters around a recessed round-arched doorway, with a panelled soffit to the arch. Rendered 6-bay N aisle of semicircular-arched windows above a plat band, with a gable-end parapet ramped up to the pediment at either end. Similar S aisle, with a window in the W end. Pedimented W gable, above a rendered porch with a semicircular-arched doorway with imposts, a carved cherub key and a batswing fanlight and a cornice, and a window with plain impost and key above. 3-stage tower: tall, 3-light W window, and similar 2-light windows to the second stage and the belfry; clasping pilasters with buttresses, panelled at the belfry with ogee heads and pinnacles below the parapet; an octagonal stair turret on the SW corner, ending with a spirelet with paired blind trefoil panels and a crocketed top; an open parapet, with crocketed pinnacles inside the corners. INTERIOR: being repaired after a fire at the time of survey. Reported to include a nave of 5 bays on square columns with a tunnel vault, and a good W gallery on Roman Doric columns; fine tripartite reredos of 1716 with Corinthian columns. FITTINGS: font by Wood, with a Greek cross plan and shallow fluted bowl, converted to a lectern. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: between the tower and the S aisle is a curved, ramped wall with square, chamfered piers and wrought-iron gates, and to the N of the chancel is a round-arched gateway and gate. HISTORICAL NOTE: the original fine late Gothic church was demolished in 1791; the tower was intended to be modernised to Allen's design, but the work was never carried out. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 185; Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bristol: Bath: 1952-: 84; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 410).

Listing NGR: ST5911872768