St Matthias' College

St Matthias' College is a collegiate building constructed between 1851 and 1852, with extensions in 1903. It was designed by John Bevan, with assistance from Jonathan Clarke. The building originally served as the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Training Institution for School Mistresses, and is now part of the University of the West of England. Constructed of squared Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, it features Pennant stone tile and clay tile roofing, along with square stone diagonal stacks on the ridges and gable ends. The architecture is in the Gothic Revival style.

The building comprises four linked blocks arranged around three sides of a quadrangle, open to the east. A north-facing L-shaped block includes a projecting entrance gable and an octagonal stair tower with a pierced parapet. It has two storeys, though the front gable rises to three, with varied fenestration featuring chamfered mullion and transom windows, and eaves dormers on the second floor. A two-centred doorway is topped with carved head hood stops, with a canted bay to the west and lower eaves to the east end. The main western range has a central gable and an entrance tower at the north end, with similar windows. The tower features a two-centred arched doorway, a pierced parapet, and a spirelet. A cross hall on the south has an octagonal bayed end with a pyramidal roof terminating in louvred dormer windows, and a curved staircase with a ramped parapet. A projecting wing to the north has a three-window range separated by buttresses. A chapel is located in the southwest corner, featuring lancet windows and a bellcote on the west end. A later block on the south side is two storeys high, with an eight-window range, an octagonal stair tower with a pierced parapet and corner gargoyles, ground-floor segmental-headed windows, first-floor eaves dormers, and an oriel window at the east end, along with a covered ground-floor connecting passage.

The interior of the main block features a staircase with twisted iron balusters and crenellated newels. The cross hall boasts a hammerbeam roof supported by carved corbels and incorporates a stone winder stair with wrought-iron banisters. The chapel roof is constructed with alternating cusped arch-braced and scissor-braced trusses, with pierced spandrels. Various Gothic fireplaces are present throughout. A traceried stained-glass screen is located within the ground-floor front wing gable. The building is considered one of the best examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Bristol, notable for its carefully varied plan and detail.