Eye Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary, And Attached Basement Area Railings

Eye Hospital, Bristol Royal Infirmary, and Attached Basement Area Railings

A pair of attached houses converted into one hospital building, now the Eye Hospital at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Originally constructed as two separate dwellings, dated 1753 (inscribed on a cast lead hopper head with a winged putto), the buildings were altered and converted to hospital use in 1886, when the roof was raised. The architect for these alterations was H Crisp.

The buildings are constructed in brick with limestone dressings and a slate roof, following an early-to-mid Georgian style with a double-depth plan. The frontage presents three storeys, an attic and basement, arranged across an unequal 3:6-window range. The pair is articulated by pilaster strips running through moulded strings at each floor, rising to a moulded parapet coping; the narrower left-hand house is distinguished by a cornice.

The right-hand house features a prominent doorway slightly right of centre, with fluted Corinthian pilasters, entablature blocks and a segmental pediment broken forward to the pilasters. The door itself is a double 4-panel door with a segmental-arched architrave and plate-glass overlight. The windows have segmental-arched keyed brick heads with moulded timber cills, containing 6/6-pane sashes in recessed, exposed frames, with horns on the lower floors and thick bars on the second floor. Three 19th-century dormers with horned 6/1-pane sashes are positioned across the roof, paired to the middle and right. A cast lead hopper head to the left is inscribed IBS 1753 with a winged putto.

The left-hand house displays a blocked left-hand doorway with acanthus brackets to a pediment and a split key to the architrave, with a 6/6-pane sash and ashlar below. Rubbed brick keyed flat arches frame 6/6-pane sashes with reveals and concealed frames; these are paired in the wider window above the doorway. The second floor contains 3/6-pane sashes. The rendered basement features segmental-arched windows. The rear elevation includes a 19th-century canted bay and a large segmental-arched stair light with 20th-century stained glass.

Interior

The interior retains a good quality of late Georgian decoration, though the two houses have been linked together with the left-hand end opened to hospital use in the late 20th century. The left-hand end has lower floor levels than the right. Fully panelled front ground-floor rooms feature egg-and-dart cornices, 6-panel doors and shutters. Fire surrounds are fitted with hob grates and eared designs; the right-hand front room of the left-hand house has fluted Ionic pilasters flanking the fire surround, with a rocaille frieze and eared overmantel.

The entrance hall of the right-hand house is particularly fine, with fluted pilasters framing panelled elliptical arches across the middle and to the left-hand doorway. An open dogleg stair rises from here with three column-on-vase balusters per tread, the middle one twisted, a wide curtail, good carved brackets, and a moulded ramped rail matched by wainscotting. From the first-floor landing the stair opens to the front as before. The first-floor landing itself is articulated by fluted pilasters on each side supporting a cornice with late 19th-century coved plaster corbels set beneath.

Subsidiary Features

Cast-iron basement area railings are attached to the building.

Historical and Architectural Notes

Although the moulded strings link the pair as a unified composition, the exposed sashes and doorcase of the larger (right-hand) house appear to be of an earlier date, comparable to Dowry Square of circa 1720. By contrast, the cornice and recessed window frames of the narrower left-hand house appear to be of a later date. This suggests the pair may have been built in phases, though the 1753 inscription and overall design point to an integrated scheme of that date.