Holy Trinity Almshouses And Attached Walls And Railings To Jacob Street

Holy Trinity Almshouses and Attached Walls and Railings to Jacob Street, Bristol

Almshouses, now converted to flats. Founded in 1402 by John Barstaple and substantially rebuilt over three phases: the north-east block in 1857–58, the chapel and west block in 1867, and the south-east block in 1881–83, all by the architects Foster and Wood. The buildings are constructed of squared Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, brick, limestone ashlar ridge, gable and exterior stacks, and tiled hipped and gable roofs with decorative ridges.

The almshouses follow a double-depth plan with parallel ranges on three sides of a courtyard: three blocks on the east and two on the west, with a chapel opposite. The design combines Tudor Revival style with Burgundian Gothic influences in the later blocks. All buildings are two storeys tall, symmetrically fronted with coped parapets and gables. The windows are mullion and transom, Tudor-arched with metal casements, accompanied by label moulds, sill bands and drip courses. Doors are of oak with linenfold panels and carved posts to upper glazing. Stacks feature corbelled cornices and there is much carved decoration throughout.

The 1867 north-west block displays five gables, the end ones projecting with finials. Entrances positioned in the angles with the end gables are sheltered by steeply pitched porches with carved oak sides and steps. The middle gable has two cross windows; the others have three-light windows, those at the ends featuring trefoil heads and sunken traceried panels above with shield label stops inscribed "JB". Carved animals link the string across the downpipes, and first-floor corner gargoyles enliven the front. The fine rear elevation has end gables and a central section set back to form a small courtyard. Wide arches flank dogleg stairs on either side, with stout columns supporting a bracketed gallery on three sides beneath extended eaves, decorated with traceried panels.

The 1867 south-west block has projecting gabled ends and a central bay with brick between, linked by galleries below sprocketed eaves. The outer bays are canted, with balustrades and trefoil-headed windows. The central full-height bay features full-width five-light windows and a timber-framed gable with brick infill. Doors below the galleries on the right are paired with three-light windows on the left. The rear elevation shows a crenellated right-hand block and four gables; the left-hand pair are separated by eaves extending through the parapet over two carved oak open arches.

The east range comprises two linked blocks. The 1881 south-east block mirrors the opposite range but with a crenellated right end block and a notable carved open oak stair turret at the middle, containing spiral stairs to the gallery and topped with a conical roof and lead finial. The rear elevation displays four projecting gables with cross windows and four-light windows between; the end elevation has a canted bay.

The 1858 north-east block mirrors the south-west block but with a single pitched canopy to the central doorway, taller stacks and a linking block to the south. Its rear elevation features a central projecting gable with diagonal buttresses, arrow slits on the ground floor, three-light first-floor windows and an exterior stack to the left. At the north end is an asymmetrical block fronting Old Market Street, with a right-hand entrance beneath a pitched canopy and a four-light window above. A central square stair turret rises through this elevation. The gable contains a canted bay below a three-light window and a panel inscribed "FOUNDED BY JOHN BARSTAPLE / REBUILT MDCCCLVII". The street front has two projecting gables with cross windows and a large exterior stack to the right.

The chapel features a three-light east window with Perpendicular tracery and an ogee hood, flanked and crowned by crocketed niches. The north side has a battered lower wall with developing buttresses between four-light aisle windows beneath an ashlar parapet, and a gabled right-hand cross wing with a two-light window. Three clerestory windows of three lights are set above, with a wide stack to the right above a bellcote to the back of the cross wing. A four-light north window displays rectilinear tracery. From the north gable, a revetment wall extends along the Jacob Street elevation of the west range, with a plinth and two brick sections featuring quatrefoils and wrought-iron stanchions and braces.

Interior spaces include the chapel, which has a glazed tiled east end and a painted inscription at the top of the wall, with a twentieth-century mezzanine above angel corbels. The flats contain open-well stairs with chamfered balusters and ball finial newels, half-glazed panelled doors with wrought-iron studs, built-in shelves and cupboards, and open ceiling joists.

Attached walls and railings on curved brackets enclose the galleried courtyard to Jacob Street, with two good wrought-iron lamp baskets hanging over the gallery stairs. The walls also enclose the area to the south-west.

The design of the almshouses became increasingly French-influenced during their reconstruction, and shares features such as the open spiral stair with the Fosters Almshouses of 1861.