Description

BRISTOL

ST5872NE CORN STREET, Centre
901-1/16/567 (North West side)
08/01/59 No.43
Bristol Commercial Rooms and
attached area railings
(Formerly Listed as:
CORN STREET
(North side)
No.43
Bristol Commercial Rooms)

GV II*

Club, above bank vault now restaurant. 1810. By CA Busby.
Sculpture by JG Bubb. Limestone ashlar, roof not visible. Open
plan. Neoclassical style. Single storey and basement; 2-window
range.
A symmetrical front has a pedimented Ionic tetrastyle front,
with a recessed centre and single windows each side, a sill
band, entablature and blocking course, and tall parapet set
back with a dentil cornice and blocking course. 2 doorways
have architraves to half-glazed double doors beneath a dentil
cornice round the central recess, with a wide panel above of
Britannia being brought the 4 corners of the world.
The windows have panelled aprons, carved sill blocks,
architraves and pediments. Above are 2 female statues flanking
Britannia to the middle with a spear and shield. Left-hand
marble winder steps down to a basement doorway with a coffered
segmental head, marble-lined area in front with green marble
pilasters, panelled double doors and overlight; in front are
double cast-iron gates with turned balusters, and cartouches
inscribed THE OCEAN SAFE DEPOSIT.
INTERIOR: large club room with a dentil cornice, rectangular
ceiling opening with panelled spandrels to a glazed drum, with
caryatids and lattice glazing to a domed ceiling; 2 fire
surrounds each side have black reeded jambs to corner
roundels, and an Ionic tetrastyle timber screen to the rear;
at the S end is a clock, and the N end a matching dial giving
wind direction; the doorway into the room has a good shell
hood and pediment above.
Rear left-hand dining room has a crested cornice and balcony,
now floored over, with bowed cast-iron railings, and black
marble Egyptian Revival-style fire surround with battered
jambs and reeded coved corbels to the mantel shelf; entrance
lobby lined with green marble, with brown faience dressings to
doorways, and green coffered faience ceiling. Details of the
basement include a marble lined and floored lobby with green
marble pilasters and architrave to a half-glazed door, a
panelled left-hand room with festoon, moulded beams and black
and white marble floor, and a steel-lined former security
vault to the right-hand side with safe doors.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached front area cast-iron railings
with diagonal bars to central circles, and posts for sliding
gates.
Bristol's first building with Neoclassical awareness of
accurate historical precedence, following on from Harrison's
Lyceum in Liverpool. Used as club for mercantile interests,
hence the wind vane indicator to advise on the arrival of
shipping.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 232; The Buildings of England:
Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 424).

Listing NGR: ST5879072998

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Commercial Rooms, Bristol at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5152525

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014