Queen Elizabeth's Hospital

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ST5773SE 901-1/9/8

BRISTOL BERKELEY PLACE (east side) Queen Elizabeth's Hospital

04/03/77

II School. 1844-47. By Thomas Foster and Son. Squared red rubble with limestone dressings, limestone ashlar lateral stacks, roof not visible. Axial, single-depth plan. Tudor Gothic Revival style.

Three storeys; 19-window range, with two storey, five window wings extending at each end. A symmetrical front and near-identical rear elevation, built along a falling site making the ground floor a basement from the rear. 1:6:1:3:1:6:1 windows, the central four storey, five window entrance block breaks forward, the middle section twice, square four storey towers to each corner, all with battered ground floors. A moulded band to the ground floor, first floor string, continuous drip moulds, second-floor cornice with carved heads and flowers, and an ashlar parapet, crenellated to the four storey sections.The main entrance has a Tudor-arched doorway set in a rectangular moulded frame with recessed spandrels, carved label stops and a two-leaf ribbed door. The end towers have tall, flat two-centred arched doorways with four cinquefoil-headed overlights above flat-headed two-leaf doors. Cross windows with early C20 metal casements; some original cast-iron casements with small lattice panes to the rear. Shallow two-centred arched ground-floor windows, upper floors have flat-headed windows, with Tudor-arched lights.

The central block has cinquefoil-headed lights, a canted two storey four-light oriel to the centre with moulded base and crenellated top, narrow flanking windows, outer first-floor canted two-light oriel and a cross window above; the third floor has a central cross window and flanking single-light windows. The wings have first floor cross windows and three storey square towers at the ends. Two lateral stacks to each side behind the parapet at the front have three square stacks each linked by a crenellated cornice, and further chimney ranges to each side of the central block. Steeply-gabled ends with ashlar parapets.

INTERIOR: details include a large entrance stair hall with Tudor arches to each side, five to the axial passage, an open-well stair round the sides with openwork tracery balustrade, a large panelled octagonal newel with ogee-domed top and the base of the stair, and a timber roof with bosses. Originally single full-length teaching and dormitory rooms each side, now all divided except first-floor left hand, with arch-braced tie beam roofs; Tudor-arched doorways with panelled doors.

HISTORICAL NOTE: founded by John Carr in 1586. The present building makes early use of internal structural cast-iron beams and stanchions to support the floors. A Salvinesque composition making use of a spectacular site.

Listing NGR: ST5777273041