Royal Colonial Institute

The Royal Colonial Institute is an office building located on Whiteladies Road in Clifton, Bristol. It was built in the late 19th century and was refaced in 1921. The structure is made of limestone ashlar and features a double-depth plan in the Edwardian Baroque style. The building stands three storeys tall and has a seven-window range.

The design is asymmetrical, with an angled three-section front that includes a plinth, banded lower two floors, a frieze, a modillion cornice, and a parapet. The left section projects forward and features a two-storey tetrastyle-in-antis bow supported by fluted Ionic columns, leading to entablature blocks and a modillion cornice. The ground floor is plain, while the first floor has scrolled keys, and there are inscribed flanking second-floor panels depicting half Atlas figures holding globes labeled "AUSTRALIA" and "CANADA." Three windows between these panels have eared and keyed architraves, and the parapet includes three blind balustrade sections.

The right-hand block also projects forward and has a single-storey tripartite entrance that is flush with the road. This entrance features a central doorway with panelled jambs, an entablature, a parapet, and a two-leaf door, along with a plain right-hand opening and a left-hand window with an eared and shouldered architrave. The upper windows are set in a two-storey recess, with a square first-floor window and semicircular-arched second-floor stained-glass stair windows that have a blocked architrave. These windows also feature panels similar to those on the left, with globes inscribed "INDIA" and "AFRICA," beneath an open pediment that displays the Royal Coat of Arms carved in the tympanum. The middle section has plain tripartite windows on the lower floors and Venetian windows on the third floor, complete with pilaster jambs, a cornice, and sill blocks.

Inside, there is a large full-height stair hall that includes an open-well stair with turned balusters and large square newels topped with ball finials, along with vine-leaf cornices and pedimented door surrounds. The building was possibly constructed in 1876 by McPherson and occupies a very prominent site in the city centre.