31, BALDWIN STREET (See details for further address information)

This is an office building dating from 1898, designed by William Larkins Bernard for the Eagle Insurance company. It is located on Baldwin Street, Bristol, and includes the adjacent property at 31 St Nicholas Street. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with red sandstone dressings, brick gable stacks, and a pantile mansard roof with a slate lower portion.

The building is of double-depth plan and features an eclectic late Victorian style with Jacobethan details. It is three storeys high, with an attic and basement, and has a three-window front. The symmetrical facade has a raised ground floor with plain basement openings and a moulded sill band. Each floor has flush sandstone bands, friezes, and cornices, with foliate relief carving on the ground and second floors. Octagonal pilasters with concave faces flank the outer windows, supporting a parapet and raised central dormer gable. A semicircular-arched doorway on the right-hand side features flattened consoles with gadroons, a wrought-iron gate, an open lobby, a panelled door, a two-light overlight, and a matching window with keyed oculi above. A large central window features a semicircular arch and mullion and transom glazing bars. Ovolo mouldings appear on the outer mullion windows, and large Ipswich windows are situated above. Blocked first-floor pilasters and Ionic pilasters are on the second floor. The parapet curves downward over the outer windows, with urns set into the dies, and dormers are positioned behind. A large central four-light dormer has a gable above, containing a square panel with side consoles and a shell-head hood. Upper windows feature plate-glass sashes. The interior has not been inspected. Bernard was the architect to the Bristol School Board.