Royal Fort And Attached Front Step Railings

Royal Fort and attached front step railings

House, now university department, built 1758-61 on Tyndall's Avenue, Bristol. Designed by James Bridges for Thomas Tyndall. Built by Thomas Paty, with plasterwork by Thomas Stocking and wood carving by Thomas Paty.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with a slate hipped roof and four ridge stacks. It is planned on a double-depth footprint and rises three storeys. The main north front presents a seven-window range, while the south and west fronts each have five-window ranges. Three symmetrical facades are unified by a plat band and first-floor sill band, with a modillion cornice and parapet running across.

The north entrance front features a projecting three-window centre beneath a blind balustrade. The doorway is flanked by attached Ionic columns supporting an entablature and pediment, with a fanlight and six-panel door. The middle first-floor windows are set within semicircular arches and linked by an impost band, while the second-floor windows have five stepped voussoirs. Sashes throughout are 6/6-pane on the first floor and 3/3-pane on the second floor.

The west front has a pedimented centre that breaks forward with a rusticated ground floor and a finely-carved tympanum with balustrades on each side. Semicircular ground-floor arches frame flat-headed windows fitted with 6/9-pane sashes. The first floor displays eared architraves with outer cornices and inner pediments to 6/6-pane sashes, while the second floor has architraves with corner ears to the centre, set with 3/3-pane sashes.

The south front projects a canted, full-height bay with a balustrade and rusticated ground floor. The outer doorways have moulded consoles supporting pediments, with nine-pane glazed doors and fine rocaille carving above. Venetian windows above feature triple keys, while semicircular-arched ground-floor windows in the bay are topped by five stepped voussoirs with carved female keys. The sashes are 6/6-pane on lower floors and 3/3-pane on the third floor.

Attached to the east side is an earlier rendered house with a slate mansard roof. A late eighteenth-century linking range, two storeys and two windows wide with a parapet and bowed sides, contains French windows and 6/6-pane first-floor sashes. An early nineteenth-century three-storey, five-window-range house adjoins to the right, with irregular fenestration including a right-of-centre Venetian window, 6/6-pane sashes and second-floor casements.

Interior

The interior contains an exceptionally fine and complete scheme of decoration in Rococo and Classical styles, with excellent plasterwork, wood carving and good fireplaces. The entrance hall and central passage are flagged with slate and marble, featuring a Doric frieze with metopes and a screen of three semicircular arches with fluted fronts and panelled soffits, flanked by niches and rocaille corbels.

The stair hall to the left has an elliptical arch with carved soffit and plaster vines on each side, with a fine ceiling rose of three putti. The open-well stair features a moulded soffit, curtail and sinuous wrought-iron balusters.

The dining room has an exceptional rocaille ceiling and a marble fireplace with rocaille wood-carved overmantel and door surround, including entwined door columns. The drawing room displays a similar ceiling and a marble fireplace with carved corbels possibly depicting Thomas and Alicia Tyndall. It retains panelled shutters and six-panel doors.

Subsidiary features

The building is attended by attached front steps, wrought-iron railings and lamp holders with snuffers.

Design and significance

This is a very fine design occupying an exposed site with three impressive elevations. The attribution of design and execution remains uncertain, and the three facades may represent the work of separate architects. The grounds were landscaped by Humphry Repton in the early nineteenth century. The interior survives in good condition and remains the best eighteenth-century domestic interior to survive in the city.