Description

BRISTOL

ST5873NW COTHAM ROAD, Cotham
901-1/4/1166 (North side)
01/11/66 Western House
(Formerly Listed as:
COTHAM ROAD
(North side)
University Board Office and No.1)

GV II*

Formerly known as: Western College COTHAM ROAD.
Congregationalist college, now offices. 1905-6. By Henry Dare
Bryan. Limestone ashlar, ashlar stacks and tiled roof with
shingled lanterns. Butterfly plan with 3 linked single-depth
blocks. Arts and Crafts style.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 11-window range. A wide symmetrical front
with angled wings to a central porch with flanking octagonal
towers and a gabled hall behind. A keyed semicircular-arched
doorway has Jacobean Doric columns with strapwork lower
sections, a Doric entablature and 2-leaf oak doors. Above is a
4-light mullion window flanked by Jacobean-style pilasters to
a pulvinated frieze and cornice, and tall parapet.
The towers have a cornice with spouts on grotesque head
corbels and an openwork parapet, with steep pyramidal
shingle-hung roofs with lead finials. Behind is the hall gable
with a small 3-light window, and a large shingle-hung louvred
ridge topped by an octagonal one with a weather vane.
Ground-floor stone mullion and 2 transom leaded casements,
with 6-light widows either side of the porch, and 9-light
windows in the wings; one window in from the ends are wide
canted bays that extend up through the overhanging eaves, with
a central 9-light window on both floors, to a parapet and a
tile-hung dormer; on the ridge behind are small lanterns. The
end gables have octagonal clasping buttresses with barleysugar
tops and ball finials, large external stacks with tiled bases
to 3 diagonally-set stacks, small panels carved with an open
book, and lion-head gutter spouts. The rear gable of the hall
has a large mullion and transom window.
INTERIOR: fine and complete, a full-height aisled central hall
with a timber gallery on elliptical arches and carved Doric
columns, to a semicircular vaulted roof with vine-carved ribs;
3/4 panelled wainscotting throughout, with good doorcases to
the rear of the hall with fluted pilasters to a segmental
pediment; stair hall to the left has an open-well stair with a
pulvinated uncut string, strapwork carving, turned balusters
and square newels, and a panelled ceiling; the Common Room has
a wide Tudor arch with stopped jambs above a small
Tudor-arched fireplace, and a fitted dresser with a dentil
cornice; Tudor-arched fireplaces in other rooms; 1/2-glazed
doors; the service block to the rear has 2 built-in dressers,
a tiled pantry and a 'Gradient' range. A fine example in this
style by a distinguished local architect, and considered to be
Bristol's best Arts and Crafts building.
(The Builder: 1905-: 276; Gray A S: Edwardian Architecture:
London: 1985-: 126).

Listing NGR: ST5819673920

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Western House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17552807

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)