Former Coroner's Court (Originally a Wesleyan school)

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ST5973NW 901-1/6/2019

BRISTOL Stokes Croft BACKFIELDS (North side) Former Coroner's Court

(Formerly listed as Coroner's Court)

II

School, court and mortuary at time of listing. 1857-8, converted mid C20. By Foster and Wood. Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, ridge stack and a tiled hipped and cross-gabled roof. Single-depth axial plan with a central hall and lower cross wings at each end. Tudor Gothic Revival style. Two storeys; eight-window range.

An asymmetrical front has two tall gables projecting at each end, separated by a parapeted three-window section, with plinth, first-floor drip and corbel table, gableted kneelers to the gables, and angle buttresses to the gables and between the windows.

The right-hand gable has a two-centred arched doorway with hood and C20 glazed door, and two first-floor two-centred arched two-light windows with panel tracery; the left-hand gable has a porch with stepped kneelers, diagonal buttresses and a similar doorway, and at first floor a four-centre arched four-light mullion and transom window with arched heads and panel tracery. Middle section has four-light mullion and transom windows, left-hand gable has four-light four-centre arched mullion and transom windows to first floor.

To the left is a lower gable set forward, with a lower square left-hand porch with a French Empire-style pyramidal roof, open four-centre arched front and left side openings, and four small trefoil-headed openings above, with a steep dormer; the gable has a canted bay with a cross window, and three-light window above. At the left end is a lower two-storey block with a hipped roof and ridge stack.

INTERIOR: extensively modernised; entrance lobby with a stone open-well stair with cast-iron railings and curtail with a twisted newel; the doorway beneath has GIRLS' SCHOOL painted on the arch. Central first-floor hall has braced trusses, obscured by a suspended ceiling. Originally a Wesleyan school.

(Gomme A: Street Index of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest: 5).

Listing NGR: ST5912473766