St Matthias' College

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 07/03/2013

ST67NW 901-1/54/1275 20/02/90

BRISTOL OLDBURY COURT ROAD (West side), Fishponds, St Matthias' College

GV II*

Includes: St Matthias' College COLLEGE ROAD

College. 1851-2. By John Bevan with Jonathan Clarke. Extended 1903. Squared Pennant rubble with limestone dressings; Pennant stone tile and clay tile roof, square stone diagonal stacks on the ridges and gable ends. 4 linked blocks around 3 sides of a quadrangle, open to the E. Gothic Revival collegiate style. To the N, an L-shaped block with a projecting entrance gable and octagonal stair tower, with a pierced parapet. 2 storeys, 3 storey front gable; varied fenestration of chamfered mullion and transom windows with eaves dormers on the second floor. 2-centred doorway with carved head hood stops; canted bay to W and lower eaves to E end. Main range to W has a central gable and an entrance tower at the N end; fenestration as above. 2-centred arched doorway in the tower with a pierced parapet and spirelet; cross hall to S has an octagonal bayed end with a pyramidal roof with louvred dormer windows, and a curved staircase with a ramped parapet; projecting wing to N, a 3-window range separated by buttresses. Chapel in SW corner with lancet windows, a 4-bay range to the nave and a bellcote on the west end. Later block on S side is 2 storeys; 8-window range with an octagonal stair tower 3rd from left with a pierced parapet and gargoyles on the corners; ground-floor segmental-headed windows, eaves dormers on the first-floor and an oriel in the E end; covered ground-floor connecting passage. INTERIOR: the staircase in the main block with twisted, iron balusters and crenellated newels; the cross hall has a hammerbeam roof on carved corbels, and a stone winder stair with wrought-iron banisters. The chapel roof has alternating cusped arch-braced and scissor-braced trusses with pierced spandrels. Various Gothic fireplaces. Traceried stained-glass screen to ground-floor front wing gable. The college was built as the Gloucester and Bristol Diocesan Training Institution for School Mistresses, and is now part of the University of the West of England (Bristol Polytechnic at date of listing). One of the best Gothic Revival buildings in Bristol, with carefully varied plan and detail. (Mowl T: Bristol The Last Age of the Merchant Princes: Bristol: 1991-: 21).

Listing NGR: ST6335076270