Description

BRISTOL

ST5873SE SMALL STREET, Centre
901-1/11/629 (North East side)
08/01/59 Nos.16 AND 17
Fosters Chambers
(Formerly Listed as:
SMALL STREET
(North East side)
Nos.16 AND 17)

GV II

Pair of attached houses, now offices and restaurant. Formerly
a C15 banqueting hall, possibly late C17 front with C18
fenestration, c1846 right-hand elevation by RS Pope and mid
C20 ground-floor front. Limestone ashlar ground floor, render
above, random limestone ashlar right-hand return, ashlar
right-hand exterior stack and double Roman cross gabled and
mansard roof. Double-depth plan.
3 storeys, attic and double basement; 4-window range. A
symmetrical front has 2 gables, with paired
semicircular-arched dorways to the middle and C18-style shop
fronts each side with shallow bowed windows set flush with
glazing bars, and basement doors below the left-hand one.
Horned 6/6-pane sashes in flush frames, set in pairs to each
gable, in a panel of raised roughcast with quoin-effect edges;
small 2/2-pane attic sashes.
The C19 right-hand return has an exterior stack with 3
octagonal moulded stacks to the left of a 4-centre arched
doorway with a heavy plank door with moulded rails and strap
hinges, a label mould to head stops and foliate spandrels, and
FOSTERS CHAMBERS over the doorway. A first-floor arcade of
small 4-centre arched windows, and third-floor 5-light mullion
window with C20 casements. In the left return is a ground
floor C17 two-light mullion window with splayed surround.
INTERIOR: formerly a C15 banqueting hall with hammer-beam
roof, now gone: some timbers survive with ovolo-moulded
possible door frame set in the arched vaults to the rear on
the ground floor. Below are three C15 segmental-arched vaults
running back from the pavement, with a small lower vault
toward the rear. The C19 Chambers has an entrance to a
C18-style dogleg stair with stick balusters, column newels and
ramped moulded rail.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the house of John Foster, Mayor of Bristol
1481, founder of Foster's Almshouses and Chapel of the Three
Kings of Cologne. The right-hand return in the manner of the
neighbouring Guildhall rebuilt to form an enclosed space in
front of it. Much restored externally and altered internally.
(Gomme A: Street Index of Buildings of Architectural or
Historic Interest: 62).

Listing NGR: ST5876673089

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26581190

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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)