Engineer'S House

BRISTOL

ST5673SE THE PROMENADE, Clifton 901-1/7/1073 (East side) 08/01/59 Engineer's House

GV II*

Formerly known as: Camp House THE PROMENADE. House, now office. Signed and dated 1831. By Charles Dyer. For Charles Pinney. Limestone ashlar, rendered rear, lateral and ridge stacks, roof not visible. Double-depth plan. Neoclassical style. 2 storeys, attic and basement; 6-window range. A symmetrical front has a 1-window right-hand extension; the central 3-window section set forward with clasping pilasters to a cornice, and a parapet pierced by balustrade sections in front of outer attic windows; full-width sill bands and ground-floor impost band. The centre has a full-width 2-storey pedimented portico with 2:1:1:2 columns, Tuscan below Ionic, separated by an entablature, signed on the left end, with a thin string with continuous guttae and balustrades between panelled dies on the first floor. Plain surrounds to central windows, outer tripartite windows, on the first floor with pilaster jambs to pediments and curved stone brackets to balconies, and small attic windows cut through the frieze above; matching 2-storey right-hand block with a bay below the balcony. Horned plate-glass sashes, French windows to left-hand ground-floor and balcony windows. Symmetrical 3-window left return has a central pedimented porch with Doric columns and foliate tympanum; blind windows above with sill band, over lateral stacks. The right-hand return has 2 oriels and a recessed centre with stained-glass window and curved balustrade to a French window. Rendered rear elevation has full-height bays with curved sides to each end. INTERIOR: entrance hall with niches in chamfered corners, axial passage, a left-hand rear 2-storey stair hall with a stone cantilevered open-well stair with cast-iron balusters and anthemia, foliate newels and a curtail to wreathed rail, and panelled wainscotting; central rear dogleg service stair has cast-iron rails; front rooms have good gilded Greek Revival-style cornices; panelled shutters and reveals to 6-panel doors; vaulted brick basement. Part of an outstanding group of houses including Taylor Maxwell House (qv), Promenade House (qv) and Trafalgar House (qv) extending NW from Litfield House, Litfield Place (qv). HISTORICAL NOTE: first owned by Charles Pinney, Mayor during the Reform Bill riots of 1831, who reportedly had metal shutters fitted to the upstairs rooms. (Mowl T: To Build The Second City: Bristol: 1991-: 142; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 267).

Listing NGR: ST5661673491