Colston School, Former Bishop'S Palace

BRISTOL

ST6175 BELL HILL, Stapleton 901-1/33/1935 (South side) 08/01/59 Colston School, former Bishop's Palace (Formerly Listed as: BELL HILL (South East side) Colston School (Main Block))

II

House, later bishop's palace, now school. c1725. Altered 1841-5 by Decimus Burton. Red brick with limestone dressings; roof not visible. Georgian style. Double-depth plan. 2 storeys and attic; 7-window range. Symmetrical front in 3 sections separated by rusticated pilasters, with a ground-floor plat band, cornice, and attic course with coved coping. Large, solid porch with Doric pilasters, entablature and blocking course; segmental-arched doorway and overlight, and sashes with keyed architraves each side. The central section has 3 windows, the middle one taller, round-headed on the first floor and flat on the attic. The remaining windows have keyed segmental heads, architraves and bracketed cills, and 6/6-pane sashes with fine bars. The right return is similar, of 5 sections and a doorway with attached Doric shafts and an entablature with triglyphs. INTERIOR: largely mid C19, details include a high central hall leading to a lateral stair well, with a stone open-well stair with cut string and smooth soffit, cast-iron balusters, wreathed rail and curtail step; ground-floor rooms have modillion cornices and coffered ceilings with roses, and shutters with acanthus panelling. HISTORICAL NOTE: originally called Stapleton House, it became the residence of the Bishop of Bristol and Gloucester in 1840 following the burning of his Palace by the Cathedral in the Reform Bill riots, and part of Colston's School in 1857. (Bristol As It Was: Bristol's Suburbs Long Ago: Bristol: 255).

Listing NGR: ST6149075888