Litfield House And Attached Front Basement Balustrades

BRISTOL

ST5673SE LITFIELD PLACE, Clifton 901-1/7/879 (North side) 08/01/59 No.1 Litfield House and attached front basement balustrades (Formerly Listed as: LITFIELD PLACE, Clifton Down No.1 Litfield House)

GV II*

House, now surgery. Dated 1830. Signed Charles Dyer. Limestone ashlar with Pennant ashlar basement and rendered sides, lateral stacks and slate hipped roof. Double-depth plan. Neoclassical style. 3 storeys and basement; 5-window range. A good symmetrical front has single-storey 1-window wings set back; a moulded plat band beneath paired pilasters between the windows with acanthus capitals, plain frieze, cornice and parapet, set forward twice over the pilasters. A large Pennant-flagged Greek Doric portico has an entablature with triglyphs, metopes to cornice and parapet with a balustraded centre and sides, signed to the right; narrow 3-pane windows flank a plain doorway with 2-leaf 6-panel doors with heavy rings. Single tripartite ground-floor windows have thin architraves to 6/6-pane and flanking 2/2-pane sashes; architraves above, with console cornices and bowed stone balconies with column balusters on the first floor, to 6/6-pane sashes. The wings have central sections set forward with full height windows and architraves, blind balustrades in the parapet above, 6/6-pane left-hand sash and C20 window to the right. Tooled Pennant ashlar basement, with tripartite windows. Returns have paired pilasters beneath 2 lateral stacks. Rear elevation is a 3-window range separated by paired pilasters above a plat band, the left third forming a shallow bow; tripartite outer ground-floor windows, central 9/9-pane stair sash, the rest have architraves to 6/6-pane sashes. INTERIOR: flagged lobby with pedimented doorway to rear central stair hall with cantilevered stone open-well stair, with cast-iron wide, moulded balusters and foliate newel. Ground-floor front right-hand room has a black marble fire surround with paired pilasters, and distyle-in-antis scagliola Ionic columns to the back, and doors to rear fully-panelled room with eared fire surround; left-hand front room has fine marble fire surround with Ionic columns and cast-iron fire basket; good plaster ceilings with Greek Revival-style mouldings, and arched recesses with coffered soffits in left-hand end room. First-floor bathroom has sunken bath and green marble panelling. Right-hand dogleg service stair has cast-iron stick balusters, with good early C20 cast-iron range in former basement kitchen. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached front basement area balustrades. An outstanding example of an 1830s villa, forming the start of a fine collection of ashlar villas along Litfield Place, including Nos 8 & 9 (qv), and The Promenade. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 267; Mowl T: To Build The Second City: Bristol: 1991-: 142).

Listing NGR: ST5680673377