23-29, St Michaels Hill

A row of four attached houses at 23-29 St Michael's Hill, with numbers 27 and 29 now combined into a restaurant, was built in the mid-17th century and significantly altered in the 18th century. The houses are timber-framed and have rendered and roughcast walls, a brick party wall stack, and a pantile gabled roof. The plan consists of single front and rear rooms separated by a central lobby with stairs to the right. Each house is three storeys high with an attic, and has a single-window front. Numbers 27 and 29 are paired with jettied first floors, string courses, and bargeboards. The paired doorways have chamfered, pegged frames, narrow overlights, and panelled doors. Ground-floor windows are 8/8-pane sashes (number 23), 3/6-pane sashes (number 25), and plate-glass windows (numbers 27 and 29). Full-height oriels have 8/8-pane sashes and flanking 2/2-pane sashes in exposed frames. The left return of number 23 has a single-storey rear block with two 6/6-pane sashes. Inside numbers 27 and 29, fireplaces are located on the outer side walls of each pair; winder dogleg stairs are situated between the fire and the spine wall. There is a moulded cornice in the first-floor front room, panelled cupboards by the fire and at the top of the attic stairs, pegged doorframes, and plank doors. Number 25 has a right-hand dogleg winder stair with stick balusters and column newels, a 17th-century door frame to the ground-floor rear room, and 19th-century joinery elsewhere. The plan form is typical of mid-17th-century Bristol houses, similar to those found on King Street. The group value stems from their representation of a distinct Bristol building type from the mid-17th century.