Description

BRISTOL

ST5773SW CLIFTON DOWN ROAD, Clifton
901-1/8/760 (South side)
08/01/59 Christ Church
(Formerly Listed as:
CLIFTON DOWN ROAD
(East side)
Church of Christchurch)

II*

Church. 1841. By C Dyer. Steeple 1859 by J Norton, aisles 1885
by WC Basset-Smith. Limestone ashlar on a Pennant ashlar
plinth, slate roof and leaded porches.
Aisled, cruciform plan with an apse, SE vestry and SW steeple.
Early English Gothic Revival style.
An octagonal apse with paired lancets in a panel between a
sill mould, shallow pilasters on the angles and a trefoil
arcade below the parapet; the vestry has a canted bayed end
with a roll-topped parapet, small lancets to each face and a
group of 3 to the S, beside a small doorway with a shoulder
arch; the ends of the aisles have a pair of lancets, and a
large broached pinnacle on the angle with the nave gable with
thin gableted trefoil arches on shafts to each side, and a
pyramidal top.
The N transept is flanked by octagonal buttress towers with
blind, gabled lancets to 4 sides, and spirelet tops with
gableted openings to the sides; the gabled porch has an arched
doorway with a trefoil between it and the gable hood above,
flanked by 3 lancets with shafts and moulded capitals, 2 to
the right and 1 to the left; above a drip mould is an arcade
of 5 tall lancets with banded shafts, with a 12-spoke wheel
window below the parapet and finial.
N aisle of 4 bays, each with an arcade of paired lancet
windows with narrower blind ones either side, on banded
shafts, separated by weathered buttresses rising through a
roll-topped parapet; the porch at the W end has a shouldered
gable with blind lancets flanking the doorway which has
stepped, pointed panels in the tympanum, and a blind lancet
flanked by trefoils above; the clerestory runs for 4 bays of
the nave and returns for one bay of the transept, each an
arcade of 5 lancets, the side and central ones blind,
separated by very shallow buttresses to a weathered top above
the parapet.
The S transept differs from the N in having an arcade of 5
stepped lancets, with a final blind pair at the ends, to the
gable.
Tall W porch with an arched doorway of 2 orders, a trefoil
panel above and side pinnacles with 4 slender shafts; inside
is a cinquefoil-arched doorway with a continuous hood of
undercut roll moulding; along the outsides is a blind arcade
of 5 trefoil-headed arches, which runs into a further arcade
of 5 lancets along the front. The W end is lit by 3 tall
stepped lancets, separated by blind lancet panels of uniform
height, on banded shafts, with above, a stepped arcade like
the S transept.
The 5-stage tower and broach spire has set-back buttresses
with graded weatherings, and a weathered plinth; the W doorway
has a depressed trefoil arch within a splayed opening of 3
orders, with 2 sub-orders with Purbeck marble shafts, and a
2-leaf door with scrolled strap hinges; the middle 3 stages
have blind arcades of 3 lancets, with undercut trefoil heads
to the lower stage, a single narrow light to the second, and 2
such windows on the third; tall belfry stage has 3 louvred
lancets of 3 orders on banded shafts separated by a dogtooth
moulding, set below an arcaded top. The corners of the tower
are chamfered into the battered plinths of the spire
pinnacles, which are like those on the W porch; in between are
tall, gabled 2-light lucarnes to the ribbed octagonal spire,
with its ball finial.
INTERIOR: the sides of the apse have arcades of 3
trefoil-arched niches, and banded shafts extend up the corners
to a ribbed vault; a tall chancel arch of 3 attached shafts,
flanked by narrower arches with transoms and open tracery
tops; the crossing arches have 5 attached shafts including 2
Purbeck marble ones, and pierced quatrefoils either side at
the top; a 4-bay nave arcade of cluster columns with 4 shafts
and slim Purbeck shafts in between; the arch-braced roof is
carried down below the clerestory sill band by triple attached
shafts to corbels, and the aisle roofs are similary supported.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 293; The Buildings of England:
Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 389).

Listing NGR: ST5703573365

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Christ Church, Clifton Down at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5108678

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.

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