Entrance Lodges And Gates To Arnos Vale Cemetery

BRISTOL

ST316071 BATH ROAD, Brislington 901-1/47/429 (South side) 01/11/66 Entrance Lodges and Gates to Arno's Vale Cemetery

GV II*

Lodges, now offices, and attached gates. 1837-8. By Charles Underwood. Pennant stone flags and rubble basement, Bath stone walls and slate roofs, wrought-iron railings and gates. Each of rectangular double-depth plan. Greek Revival style: 2 temples facing one another, and linked by railings to piers, and a sliding gate. Each of one storey, attic and basement; 2-window range. Greek Doric tetrastyle temples have tapering columns beneath a deep entablature, frieze with triglyphs and pediment; banded rustication, 5-light door with 2 fielded panels, and 7-light windows with margin bars either side. The elevations to the cemetery are articulated by paired pilasters, with 2 ground-floor 6/6-pane hornless sashes and small 6-pane overhung lights in frieze. The elevations to the road are blind, with banded rustication. C20 extension to rear. Chimney pots front and rear take the place of acroteria; 3 steps and paving in Pennant stone beneath the portico. The entrance has sliding gates, flanked by spear-headed railings on dwarf walls with a hinged pedestrian gate, and ashlar piers with pediment caps; piers pierced to allow the gates to slide through them, on rails. Curved rails set in cobbles inside railings to take pedestrian gate. INTERIOR: W Lodge has dogleg stair, with stone steps down to basement; fine details include deep shirtings, plaster cornices, panelled doors (the pair to the offices being mahogany), marble fireplaces and shutter boxes to sashes. E Lodge is sparser in detail with iron handrail to stone stair. HISTORICAL NOTE: "In 1836 the Bristol General Cemetery Company was formed to meet the urgent need for an increase of burial grounds. Land at Arno's Vale within a mile of the city centre was purchased and consecrated in 1840" (Crick). The cemetery was conceived in an Arcadian manner after Claude, and comprises one of the best pioneering examples of its type in the country. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 241; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 462; Crick C: Victorian Buildings in Bristol: Bristol: 1975-).

Listing NGR: ST6084771629