Regent House

Regent House is a four-story office building dating from 1908, designed by Sir Frank Wills for the Imperial Tobacco Company. Constructed on a corner site, it stands on Lombard Street, Bedminster, Bristol. The building is built from terracotta, copper and slate, and is executed in an Edwardian Baroque style.

The building has a 20-window range facing Lombard Street, and 4 windows facing East Street. Giant Doric pilasters rise from pedestals to the first-floor entablature, which has a dentil cornice. Second-floor windows are articulated by paired Doric columns supporting an entablature. A circa-1988 attic story is set behind an original balustrade. The entrance is located in an embayed corner, featuring a doorway with a rounded Gibbs surround constructed from torus mouldings and a scrolled key. Above the doorway, a Venetian oriel is ornamented with rocaille and displays the monogram of the Imperial Tobacco Company, flanked by slender shafts and surmounted by a hood. Windows on the second floor extend across from the side elevations. The corner of the building is topped by a drum and dome, with paired shafts on a swagged plinth supporting a steeply pitched copper-sheathed dome.

The side elevations feature rectangular, coupled windows, with central colonnettes on the ground and first floors standing above a weathered plinth. Similar, smaller colonnettes are present on the second floor, accompanied by architraves and circa-1988 lighting in the attic. An arched doorway with moulded imposts, a key and fanlight is found in the far right of the East Street front. The Lombard Street facade displays a pediment over the 11th and 12th windows, containing a rocaille cartouche inscribed to the company, along with semicircular arched doorways in the 10th and 13th bays.

The interior was largely rebuilt in circa-1988, but original Jacobethan-style chimneypieces, panelling and a staircase have been reinstated. Regent House was originally constructed as the first headquarters for the newly-formed Imperial Tobacco Company.