Description

BRISTOL

ST315871 EAST STREET, Bedminster
901-1/45/379 (West side)
06/06/75 Wills No.1 Factory
(Formerly Listed as:
EAST STREET
Entrance block of Wills No.1 Factory)

GV II

Offices, formerly tobacco factory. 1884 and c1886. By Sir
Frank Wills. Red Cattybrook brick, limestone and slate. Gothic
style. 3 storeys; 19-window range.
The front divides into 2 separate builds: to the right, 9-bay
arcade of tall lancet arches with linked hoods, below groups
of thin windows developed down from the corbel table of the
cornice and parapet. Within the arcades, a plinth of
weatherings beneath a pair of tall, shouldered windows with
chamfered jambs, a basketwork brick panel, and a pair of
first-floor lancet cross windows, with a quatrefoil panel in
the tympanum. The centre bay is a 4-storey square entrance
tower with a machicolated cornice, and a French pyramid roof
with gablet vents and an iron widow's walk. At the base of the
tower are 2 open lancet arches on round shafts with pedestals
and waterleaf capitals, engaged at the sides, with stopped
hoods above. First and second floors are set back within a
tall lancet-arched opening, forming a balcony with shaft
balusters. The first-floor windows are lancets on slender
shafts with waterleaf capitals, and above them an unmoulded
3-light window with heavy mullions and transom. The tower is
supported at the sides by shallow, weathered buttreses.
The slightly later left-hand range of 12 taller lancet bays is
tied in by the matching cornice and parapet, but the bays
extend up into the attic windows. Inside them, 2 storeys of
identical pairs of rectangular windows with slender shafts and
waterleaf capitals, separated by a basketwork panel, and a
large blind quatrefoil in the tympanum.
The factory behind was demolished in 1988, and rebuilt behind
the facade, and the ground floor was opened to form a covered
pavement.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 380; Winstone R: Bristol As It Was:
Bristol: 1962-: 418).

Listing NGR: ST5872271724

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26497861

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)