Bristol Commercial Rooms and Attached Area Railings

Bristol Commercial Rooms and attached area railings is a club, originally built above a bank vault and later used as a restaurant, dating from 1810. The building was designed by CA Busby, with sculpture by JG Bubb. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with a roof that is not visible.

The building is of Neoclassical style, single-storey with a basement, and has a two-window front. A symmetrical facade features a tetrastyle Ionic portico with a pediment, a recessed central section and single windows on either side. A sill band, entablature, and blocking course run along the front, topped by a tall parapet set back with a dentil cornice and blocking course. Two doorways have architraves framing half-glazed double doors, each surmounted by a dentil cornice. Above the doorways is a large panel depicting Britannia being brought the four corners of the world. The windows feature panelled aprons, carved sill blocks, architraves and pediments. Two female statues flank Britannia in the centre, holding a spear and shield.

A marble staircase descends to a basement doorway with a coffered segmental head. The front area is lined with green marble pilasters and has panelled double doors with an overlight. Double cast-iron gates with turned balusters and cartouches inscribed THE OCEAN SAFE DEPOSIT stand in front.

The interior features a large club room with a dentil cornice, a rectangular ceiling opening with panelled spandrels leading to a glazed drum. Caryatids and lattice glazing are incorporated into a domed ceiling. Two fire surrounds on either side have black reeded jambs to corner roundels, and an Ionic tetrastyle timber screen at the rear. A clock is situated at the south end, and a matching wind direction dial is at the north end. A doorway into the room has a decorative shell hood and pediment above. A rear, left-hand dining room has a crested cornice and a balcony, which has been floored over, with bowed cast-iron railings. It also features a black marble fire surround in an Egyptian Revival style, with battered jambs and reeded coved corbels supporting the mantel shelf. An entrance lobby is lined with green marble and has brown faience dressings to the doorways, and a green coffered faience ceiling.

The basement contains a marble-lined and floored lobby with green marble pilasters and an architrave to a half-glazed door. A panelled room has festoon moulded beams and a black and white marble floor. A steel-lined former security vault stands to the right, with safe doors still in place.

Attached to the front are cast-iron railings with diagonal bars to central circles, and posts for sliding gates. This building is noted as Bristol’s first demonstration of Neoclassical architecture with awareness of historical precedence, following Harrison’s Lyceum in Liverpool. It was originally used as a club for mercantile interests, and the wind vane indicator was used to advise on the arrival of shipping.