Bridge Chambers Including Garden Railings Adjoining The River Front

Bridge Chambers, including garden railings adjoining the river front, Barnstaple

This building served as offices, with one end originally functioning as a hall for use as the County Court, and for meetings and auction sales. Built in 1872–3 to designs by architect RD Gould, it is constructed of yellow brick with details in dressed limestone. The roofs are slated with crested red ridge-tiles, except over the hall which now has plain ridge-tiles. There are 10 chimneys distributed across the ranges: 4 on the western range, 3 on the eastern range, 1 on the southern range, and 2 on the northern range. Most chimneys have clusters of circular shafts on a base of yellow brick, the shafts being of dark brown local stone with limestone moulding halfway up and at the top. The 2 southern stacks on the eastern range have rebuilt shafts of cream-coloured brick, and there is a similar stack, probably a much later addition, on the southern roof slope of the northern range.

The building has a rectangular plan built round 2 internal courtyards, divided by a cross range linking the eastern and western sides. The former hall, now subdivided, occupies the first floor of the northern range.

The structure is of 2 storeys and designed in late medieval style with fronts of good architectural quality on all 4 sides. The finest elevation faces west towards the river and consists of a 15-window range with gabled cross-wings at each end. Off-centre to the right is a large canted bay window rising above the general roof line and with a hipped roof. Off-centre to the left is a window set in a shallow projection with a dormer gable on top.

Most windows are plain with moulded stone lintels, but those in the canted bay have pointed arches and Gothic head tracery. Windows between the canted bay and right cross-wing are of 2 lights with a column in the centre having a foliated capital. The projecting window to the left comprises 3 similar lights, with the 2nd-storey window having before it a stone balcony with open trefoil-headed panels. The left cross-wing has in its ground storey 2 pairs of windows with pointed arches and decorated iron grilles. The second storey has 2 large mullioned-and-transomed windows with pointed arches and Gothic head tracery, some containing coloured glass. The side wall facing north has 4 similar windows in the upper storey and 4 large segmental-headed windows in the ground storey. On the centre of the roof ridge is an octagonal fleche with Gothic windows, a gargoyle, and a weather vane.

A notable feature of the building's remaining frontage is a single-storeyed structure with a curved front, set into the south-east corner facing the Square. It has a range of 5 pointed arches springing from square columns with foliated stone capitals, the feet of the arches decorated with a dragon and other creatures. Above it, set back, is a square turret with a steeply pitched roof. A pointed-arched doorway facing the Strand has a foliated star-panelled grille inscribed "BRIDGE CHAMBERS".

The interior is very plain, including the staircases, with the exception of the former hall, which has an arch-braced roof with patterned ceiling, the trusses springing from gigantic carved stone corbels. There is a hooded stone chimneypiece in early medieval style.

The garden on the river frontage has an iron railing with spearhead standards and uprights. Fixed to the wall adjoining the bridge is a bronze plaque recording the widening of the bridge in 1834 by James Green, civil engineer, using iron from the Neath Abbey Iron Company.

The building was erected as an investment property for the Barnstaple Bridge Trust, which was generally concerned to improve the appearance of the town, and in this case produced a design sympathetic to the medieval bridge. The Trust is believed to retain the architect's original drawings. The building is very prominent in views of Barnstaple from across the river.