Description

BRISTOL

ST5972 ST THOMAS STREET
901-1/42/287 (West side)
08/01/59 Church of St Thomas including wall,
gates and gateway
(Formerly Listed as:
ST THOMAS STREET
Church of St Thomas)

II*

Church. C14 tower, nave rebuilt 1791-3 by James Allen. Bath
stone ashlar and render, roof not visible.
Aisled nave and NW tower. Neoclassical style with a
Perpendicular Gothic tower. Chancel gable on a high plinth,
with paired Ionic pilasters to an entablature broken by a
semicircular archivolt containing a spoked 6-light window,
enlarged from the original semicircular one in 1888. Above it
is a cherub on folded wings and swag, with panels on either
side, and in the pediment above.
Chapel either side, that to the S has an Ionic pediment and
pilasters around a recessed round-arched doorway, with a
panelled soffit to the arch. Rendered 6-bay N aisle of
semicircular-arched windows above a plat band, with a
gable-end parapet ramped up to the pediment at either end.
Similar S aisle, with a window in the W end. Pedimented W
gable, above a rendered porch with a semicircular-arched
doorway with imposts, a carved cherub key and a batswing
fanlight and a cornice, and a window with plain impost and key
above.
3-stage tower: tall, 3-light W window, and similar 2-light
windows to the second stage and the belfry; clasping pilasters
with buttresses, panelled at the belfry with ogee heads and
pinnacles below the parapet; an octagonal stair turret on the
SW corner, ending with a spirelet with paired blind trefoil
panels and a crocketed top; an open parapet, with crocketed
pinnacles inside the corners.
INTERIOR: being repaired after a fire at the time of survey.
Reported to include a nave of 5 bays on square columns with a
tunnel vault, and a good W gallery on Roman Doric columns;
fine tripartite reredos of 1716 with Corinthian columns.
FITTINGS: font by Wood, with a Greek cross plan and shallow
fluted bowl, converted to a lectern.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: between the tower and the S aisle is a
curved, ramped wall with square, chamfered piers and
wrought-iron gates, and to the N of the chancel is a
round-arched gateway and gate.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the original fine late Gothic church was
demolished in 1791; the tower was intended to be modernised to
Allen's design, but the work was never carried out.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 185; Ison W: The Georgian Buildings
of Bristol: Bath: 1952-: 84; The Buildings of England: Pevsner
N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 410).

Listing NGR: ST5911872768

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Thomas the Martyr, Bristol at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7595585

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)