Description

BRISTOL

ST5872NE CLARE STREET, Centre
901-1/16/546 (North West side)
01/11/66 Nos.17 AND 19

GV II

Attached offices. Dated 1899. By Alfred Waterhouse. For the
Prudential Assurance. Red terracotta and pink granite, ridge
stack and Cornish slate hexagonal pyramidal roof. Double-depth
plan. French Loire Chateau Revival style.
3 storeys, attic and basement; 4-window range. A symmetrical
block to 3 sides of a corner site has drum towers with conical
roofs and lead finials to the corners, a plain granite plinth
with roll-mouldings under the windows, sill bands, friezes and
cornices to each floor, a dentil cornice breaking forward over
the window jambs, and panelled parapet. The right-hand
semicircular-arched doorway has billet moulding to a chamfered
reveal, in a moulded gable between large consoles with foliate
faces, castellate finials to the gable, and a dated cartouche.
Windows are set in raised full-height sections, paired to the
centre, and narrower 2-light windows above the doorway;
architraves with billet mouldings, pilaster jambs to upper
floors with floriate panels and crocket capitals, and panelled
aprons to the second floor; right-hand first-floor mullion and
second-floor cross windows. Large 1:2:1 two-light
semicircular-arched dormers with pilaster jambs, gables to the
outer ones with pedimented top blocks, and large central
tripartite gable with side consoles and a segmental pediment.
The rear elevation is the same, and the left return is
fenestrated as the central section; side and rear have plain
basement openings. The towers have 3 small ground-floor
windows set flat across the tower's curve, with swan's neck
pediments, and single cross windows above. Plate-glass sashes.
A large central stack has angle buttresses, central
semicircular arches and a cornice.
INTERIOR: entrance dogleg stair with foliate wrought-iron
railings, and pale green moulded glazed tiled wainscot with
Art Nouveau patterns and fluted reeded frieze; 6-panel doors,
and eared fire surrounds with green tiles.
Waterhouse was the Prudential's architect, and this is his
only building in Bristol.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 389; Crick C: Victorian Buildings in
Bristol: Bristol: 1975-: 65).

Listing NGR: ST5869672948

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26571312

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: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)