Description

BRISTOL

ST5873SE BROAD STREET, Centre
901-1/11/537 (North East side)
01/11/66 The Grand Hotel

GV II

Hotel. 1864-9. By Foster and Wood. Limestone ashlar with
external and lateral stacks, roof not visible. Rectangular in
plan. Italianate Renaissance style.
5 storeys, attic and double basement; 7-window range. A
symmetrical front with a 1-window splayed left-hand corner,
projecting ground floor, sill bands enriched with acanthus to
the 2nd and 3rd floors, a frieze beneath an open 4th-floor
eaves gallery with a sill band, a deep bracketed timber
cornice and C20 attic storey. The ground floor is articulated
by square piers with coved capitals, volute side brackets, and
mid C20 glazing with small panes and double plate-glass doors,
pedestals above with cast-iron reproduction lamps with
spherical glass globes, and cast-iron railing with leaves and
flowers between.
The first floor has tall semicircular-arched windows with
moulded archivolts, panelled pilasters with crocket capitals
and plain impost band, the middle former entrance is taller
with a hoodmould of palmettes and a coffered soffit, to
plate-glass windows. Upper windows have panelled pilaster
jambs, semicircular arches on the 2nd floor within rectangular
moulded frames with medallions in the spandrels, and
flat-headed on the 3rd floor. Plate-glass sashes.
4th-floor open gallery with 3:14:3 columns with foliate
capitals, separated by panelled sections, below a deep cornice
with paterae and square panels between the brackets. Plain
attic.
The left return has a shallow ashlar exterior stack from the
2nd floor, and ashlar 1-window section to the left on the
gallery, brick the rest with rendered ground floor, and
first-floor semicircular arches containing matching arched
windows.
INTERIOR: extensively altered and refurbished internally;
moulded cornices survive, sometimes above suspended ceilings,
a central reception room has a black and white marble floor
and glazed ceiling, now covered over, and the ballroom is
articulated by fluted Ionic pilasters to a coved ceiling;
extensive brick vaulted basements on 2 levels, with a C14 well
toward the rear.
The ground-floor was originally occupied by shops, and the
entrance was by a flight of steps up between them to a doorway
with a lion sitting in the fanlight. L-shaped in plan, the
marble-floored room had a glazed S wall overlooking the
graveyard of Christ Church with St Ewen (qv). Carriage access
from the left-hand return to rear stables, including a
carriage turntable. The roof was pitched with ridge stacks. A
striking facade, noted for its Florentine-style eaves balcony.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 355; The Buildings of England:
Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 426; The
Builder: London: 675).

Listing NGR: ST5887573114

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• The Grand Hotel at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26497695

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper