Bristol And Exeter Building

BRISTOL

ST5972 TEMPLE GATE 901-1/42/290 (North East side) 04/03/77 Bristol and Exeter Building

GV II*

Railway station, now offices. 1852. By SC Fripp. For the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company. Limestone ashlar with a slate hipped roof. Planned around a central atrium. Jacobethan style. 2 storeys, basement and attic; 9-window range. A symmetrical front has a high plinth, projecting ends and a centre flanked by square towers, and raised quoins and jambs; paired engaged Doric columns flank a semicircular-arched doorway with a lozenge-panelled door, and scrolls in the spandrels; the entablature runs round the building, between 3-light mullion and transom windows to the wings and centre, 2-light in between and one-light to the tower; Dutch gables to the front and end gables, which have wide bays with first-floor oriels; the 3-stage towers have circular clock panels to the top stage and leaded ogee domes; ridge stacks with linked, diagonally-set stacks. INTERIOR: a large, top-lit central atrium has a cantilevered stone open-well stair with scrolled cast-iron balusters and square newels, doorcases with round-headed arches, keys and floating cornices, and a second-floor balcony with rectangular Ionic columns to the lantern. HISTORICAL NOTE: built by the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company, whose train shed stood on the site of the current Temple Meads station (qv). Graded for its historic and architectural interest as part of an outstanding group of railway buildings. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 348).

Listing NGR: ST5966972351