Description

BRISTOL

ST5872NE KING STREET, Centre
901-1/16/604 (North side)
08/01/59 No.30
The Old Library and attached front
area wall, pier and railings
(Formerly Listed as:
KING STREET
(North side)
The Old Library)
(Formerly Listed as:
KING STREET
(North side)
Walls, railings and gates of The Old
Library)

GV II*

Library, offices, now restaurant. 1738-40. Carving and
possibly design by James Paty. Extended late C18. Limestone
ashlar, Pennant rubble basement, hipped roof not visible.
Double-depth plan with central stair-hall, and a left-hand
projecting extension. Early Georgian Palladian style.
2 storeys and basement; 5-window range with 2-window wing. A
symmetrical front with a left-hand wing, moulded plinth,
banded ground floor to a plat band, banded pilaster strips to
a modillion cornice and parapet with moulded coping, the
pedimented 3-window centre is set forward. A shallow porch
with fluted Composite columns and responds and modillion
pediment, to a door with 8 raised panels.
The wing has a right-hand door with blocked jambs, and a short
wall to the left of the end elevation with a panel inscribed
THE OLD LIBRARY above a plate-glass overlight and 6-panel
door. Ground-floor windows have incised voussoirs and 6/6-pane
sashes. First-floor windows have shallow aprons, raised
cornices, and pediments to the outer windows, the right-hand
one of the wing, and segmental to the centre, to 9/9-pane
sashes with thick glazing bars.
In the right return is a semicircular-arched stair window with
an architrave and 6/6-pane sash with Gothick glazing bars.
INTERIOR: entrance hall with a good right-hand open-well stair
with rocaille carved brackets, 3 column-on-vase balusters per
tread, larger matching newel to a wide curtail and moulded
rail; panelled shutters, doors and moulded cornices.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: flagged front area has attached
right-hand ashlar wall to a capped pier, and bud-headed
wrought-iron railings and gate with dog bars across the front.
The pediments flanking the centre formerly had putti reading
books above, and the main pediment held a good City coat of
arms, both lost in neglect and restoration. The very fine
panelled reading room on the first floor, with bookcases and
magnificent continued chimneypiece by Grinling Gibbons, were
removed to the Central Library in 1909.
Wall, railings and gate were listed on 04.03.77.
(Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bristol: Bath: 1952-: 63,
PL 14; Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An
Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 141; The Buildings of
England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-:
433).

Listing NGR: ST5872772709

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Old Library at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7084369

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

• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)