Foster'S Almshouses Foster'S Almshouses And Attached Walls, Railings And Gates

Foster's Almshouses and Attached Walls, Railings and Gates

Foster's Almshouses occupy Three Kings Court on the east side of Colston Street in Bristol, with entrances also facing Christmas Steps. The almshouses were founded by John Foster in 1483, though the present building was constructed in phases: the west wing in 1861, the north wing in 1872, and the south and east wings between 1880 and 1883. The building was designed by Foster and Wood.

The almshouses are constructed in brick with black diaper work and limestone dressings. The roofs are tiled and hipped, with leaded finials and tower tops. The building follows a double-depth plan arranged to three sides of a courtyard, with a south wing. The architectural style is French Burgundian Gothic Revival.

The principal elevations are of two storeys with a basement and attic storey. The courtyard side features ranges of 6, 5 and 5 windows. Moulded ground-floor drips and ovolo eaves cornices carved with fruit and leaves are a prominent feature, along with decorative iron gutters with dragons to the hoppers and down pipes at drip height. Cast lead foliate finials terminate the hip ends, and decorative ridge tiles run along the roofs. Ridge stacks with diagonal ribs and moulded cornices stand at each end of the ranges, while similar lateral stacks are linked in pairs.

Windows throughout use mullions and casements. Decorative narrow windows with trefoil ogee heads and metal casements punctuate the elevations. The courtyard contains square three-storey towers at the inner corners. These towers have open elliptical ground-floor arches carried on round columns, with ogee hoods featuring crockets. The right-hand tower rises through a relief carving of the almshouses itself. First-floor corner statue niches with canted canopies occupy the towers, with a figure visible in the right-hand example. Two-light second-floor windows sit above, beneath leaded ogee pyramidal roofs topped with cast lead corner crockets and finials.

Gabled timber-framed two-storey porches punctuate the courtyard ranges. The porch to the centre of the east range and left of centre of the north range feature open two-centre arches. On the first floor, full-width stone balconies on brackets with lattice timber railings extend from these porches. These railings continue into a timber winder stair tower in the north-west corner, which has eight corner buttresses, a central newel post, and a tiled conical roof. The south range has a gabled timber porch with moulded curved sides and double half-glazed doors. Cross windows appear on the north range, three-light mullion windows on the east and south ranges. A corner oriel on the south-west corner of the courtyard has a carved moulded base, aprons and heads, with attached corner buttresses and a conical lead roof topped by a fine finial.

The Christmas Steps elevation presents a ten-window range. A ground-floor string and first-floor continuous drip and label moulds run across it. Ground and first-floor windows match in pattern. Canted two-light oriels occupy the second and fourth windows from the left. Cross windows appear at positions one, two and four from the right, while single mullion windows fill the remaining positions. A two-light dormer with a square panel in the gable sits third from the left. Below, a basement arcade of six semicircular arches on chamfered square columns with octagonal capitals and bases extends the full width. These arches increase in height towards the left and are now fitted with plate-glass shop fronts.

The Colston Street front presents a six-window range above a stepped plinth. A canted oriel two windows from the right contains a three-light window beneath. A right-hand lateral stack rises beside this feature. Rear elevations are punctuated by four gabled dormers with triple quatrefoils, separated by a set-back corner block.

Interior features include stone floors laid on moulded beams. A stone winder stair with wrought-iron barley sugar balusters and newels is fitted with moulded rails. Panelled shutters and four-panel doors with barley sugar window catches furnish the rooms throughout.

The frontage includes an attached front wall across the courtyard entrance with sunken quatrefoils and wrought-iron railings featuring fleur-de-lys and small finials. Lamps on square piers support elaborate wrought-iron double gates. A rear retaining wall carries attached spike-headed wrought-iron railings.

The composition is finely detailed and particularly effective on the lower Christmas Street elevation. The design is modelled on the Hotel Dieu in Beaune, France.