Brislington House And Attached Chapel

Brislington House and attached Chapel

An insane asylum, now nursing home, originally built around 1804 and refronted with a chapel added in 1851. The house was constructed by Dr E L Fox to pioneer the humane treatment of the mentally ill. The building is rendered over ashlar and rubble with an asphalt and slate roof.

The layout consists of a series of blocks linked by a spine corridor with a cross wing to the left. The long front elevation displays late Palladian style architecture, formed by a flat-roofed central block with inner and outer wings on each side.

The central block rises three storeys with a basement and comprises a 9-window range. The ground floor is rusticated with vermiculated quoins, and a rusticated first-floor string features a cornice with carved heads and balustrade. A Doric porch with pediment and semicircular-arched doorway sits centrally, flanked by tripartite windows. Ground-floor windows have keys in the rustication, while first-floor windows alternate between segmental and straight pediments on carved consoles with panelled jambs. Second-floor windows are smaller, set in moulded architraves. All windows have metal casements. The outer bays are set back slightly. The rear elevation features two full-height bay windows and a semicircular basement extension.

The inner flanking wings are lower, rising three storeys in 3-window ranges. They have 6/6-pane sashes in moulded architraves, with the first-floor middle windows pedimented like the central block. The outer wings comprise 6-window ranges with cornices over the first-floor windows. The second window out from the centre projects slightly within a frame of rusticated pilasters topped by a pediment.

To the right, an attached pavilion extends forward, rising two storeys with an attic storey. Its 3-window range has first-floor windows in recessed bays, a pediment and parapet, and a hipped roof. A mid-20th-century passage links a further block of two storeys and attic with a 5-window range. This block features 6/6 sashes, two right-hand windows in a shallow full-height bay, narrow lights in the frieze below the cornice, and dormers above. The final block rises two storeys with a 2-window range, a canted bay on the left, and a doorway with a flat architrave and cornice surrounding a semicircular doorway, fine fanlight and 6-panel door.

A central balustrade extends either side of the entrance porch, ending in tall lancet-sectioned piers carrying the Fox family emblem of a chained hound.

The Chapel steps forward from the left-hand end and faces the centre. It has a Greek cross plan and rises as a single storey with a 3-window range. The rusticated ground floor has clasping pilasters, cornice and pediment. The doorcase features a heavy segmental pediment with panelled entablature and large consoles; above is a niche within a sunken panel. A bellcote with volute brackets surmounts the pediment.

Interior details include two stone stairs with cast-iron landings around open, top-lit wells. The Chapel contains a large ornate reredos enclosing a family window from Church of St Luke's, Brislington, an organ loft, and a ceiling with plaster panels to the beams and Corinthian modillion corbels.

The original building of circa 1804 consisted of the central 9-window range flanked on either side by three 2-storey flat-roofed blocks linked by a covered tunnel at the front. Metal windows, doors, floor joists and blinds formed part of fireproof construction. Men and women were accommodated separately in opposite wings, with separate blocks reflecting the social standing of occupants. The existing front and chapel were added in 1851. The end house was built for the Fox family. Swiss Cottage on Ironmould Lane was constructed as special accommodation for a peer.