Abbey House, Cathedral School

BRISTOL

ST5872NW COLLEGE GREEN 901-1/15/64 (South side) Abbey House, Cathedral School

GV II*

Porter's lodge and gateway to Augustinian monastery, now school. Mid C12 archway in C17 house, rebuilt mid C20. Limestone ashlar, red sandstone rubble and render, tiled cross gabled roof. Double-depth plan. Late Norman-style archway. 3 storeys; 2-gable range. A pair of gables to the W front has a left-hand semicircular archway of 3 orders with scallop capitals, outer arch with woven pattern moulding, the inner 2 with zigzag, to an inner 4-centre arch, with 2 small relief shields above; to the E side a similar arch has a rounded surround. Mid C20 metal casements above. Gabled right-hand return of red Pennant rubble. INTERIOR: rebuilt mid C20; the passage between the archways has a concrete roof. HISTORICAL NOTE: part of the Augustinian abbey of St Augustine (qv), a C12 archway into a courtyard, the C17 house built over it gutted by fire in the Second World War, and rebuilt internally. The arch closely related to that in the N elevation of the Cathedral School (qv), and to the Great Gateway (qv). (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 386; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 17; Archaeologica: 1911-).

Listing NGR: ST5829772626