Brislington Transport Depot Tram Sheds And Attached Wall

BRISTOL

ST67SW BATH ROAD, Brislington 901-1/56/442 (East side) 21/08/91 Brislington Transport Depot Tram Sheds and attached wall

GV II

Tram sheds. 1899. By W Curtis Green. For the Bristol Tram Company. Bath stone ashlar and squared Pennant rubble, steel truss roofs. 4 ranges of open-plan sheds. Single storey. Two 4-bay sheds 30m NE from the entrance (qv), linked by an arch across an alley, with slender elliptical arches, inscribed with roundels, on banded piers capped with segmental pediments. Flank walls form an 18-window range, with brick dressings and ashlar impost band to segmental-headed windows. In the NW corner of the site is a 3-bay shed, the Bloomfield Road elevation of which has 3 bays each with 2 windows with metal glazing bars, segmental heads with roundels linked by an impost band, and separated by rusticated pilasters. The entrance in the right return has an elliptical arch flanked by rusticated pilasters capped with segmental pediment. At the SE end of the shed is a third block, facing SW, with 3 bays. INTERIOR: steel posts support the roof. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a rubble stone perimeter wall extends along Bloomfield Road. HISTORICAL NOTE: the Bristol Tram Company started business in 1875, and had 7 depots in Bristol; Brislington is the only one close to its original form, a rare example of a complete tram depot, with architectural attention given to the tramsheds as well as the showpiece entrance. Green also built the company's Tramway Generating Station on Counterslip (qv). Gomme links EH Edwards with the design of the depot. (The Builder: London: 1900-; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 433; RCHME: Bristol An Architectural Survey of Urban Development Corporation: London: 1991-: 5).

Listing NGR: ST6124871589