Church Of St George Brandon Hill

BRISTOL

ST5872NW GREAT GEORGE STREET 901-1/15/106 (North West side) 08/01/59 Church of St George, Brandon Hill (Formerly Listed as: GREAT GEORGE STREET (North side) Church of St George)

GV II*

Church, now concert hall. 1821-3. By Sir Robert Smirke. Limestone and Pennant ashlar, roof not visible. Longitudinal plan, built on lateral vaulted chambers, with sanctuary behind portico and U-plan galleries to first floor. Greek Revival style. A tetrastyle porch with Greek Doric Theseion order columns on shallow Pennant plinths; behind it are 3 doorways with moulded architraves and C20 doors, under a plat band and 3 semicircular-arched windows; surmounting the pediment is a short square pedestal and a round lantern, with Doric pilasters to alternate blind and louvred square windows, and a dome with acroteria. N elevation of 7 bays has a rusticated basement, cornice and parapet; almost square lower windows with beaded reveals and semicircular-arched upper ones above a plat band; similar S elevation. Projecting centre to the W end has 2 flights of stairs on either side with curtail steps; 2 shallow pilasters flank a door with a cornice on brackets, and a semicircular-arched window above; to the sides are similar doors with blind windows. INTERIOR: entrance lobby from the W end and portico from the liturgical E end; U-plan panelled galleries to sides and W end on fluted cast-iron Doric columns, and panelled plaster ceiling with painted roses and other Greek Revival mouldings. Open-well stone stairs lead up to galleries from portico. Lateral vaulted crypt. Inserted stage to W end c1987. FIXTURES: late C19 pews, C18 box pews in the galleries, and a large square marble font on short shafts. Marble sanctuary furniture by Foster and Wood c1878 in storage. A Waterloo church, built as a chapel-of-ease to Cathedral of St Augustine (qv), and converted to a concert hall c1987. A notable piece of Greek Revival architecture, Smirke being a leading practitioner of the style. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 236; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 389; Gomme A: Street Index of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest: 27).

Listing NGR: ST5813572993