Description

BRISTOL

ST5873SW QUEEN'S ROAD
901-1/10/228 (North East side)
01/11/66 City Museum and Art Gallery and
attached front walls
(Formerly Listed as:
QUEENS ROAD
(North side)
City Museum and Art Gallery)

GV II*

Museum and gallery. Dated 1899-1904. By Sir F Wills. Limestone
ashlar, roof not visible. Rectangular open plan in 2 sections.
Edwardian Baroque style.
3 storeys; 3-window range. A monumental front has a deeply
projecting centre over a porte cochere. Vermiculated outer
quoins to a frieze, modillion cornice and parapet; centre has
a rock-faced plinth to a band, vermiculated ground floor to a
plat band, and paired Ionic clasping pilasters. The centre
section breaks forward, with paired Ionic columns from the
first floor to a pediment surmounted by an outer balustrade
and central pedestal with Beaux Arts statuary.
First-floor half-domed 5-light mullion bow, under a raised
panel inscribed THE GIFT OF SIR HENRY WILLIAM WILLS BART TO
HIS FELLOW CITIZENS 1904, and a large carving of the city
arms. To each side are relief carvings of artists' palettes.
Outer semicircular-arched 3-light mullion windows and a key,
with stained glass; above are swagged panels. The porte
cochere has semicircular arches front and side with coved
reveals and large keys giving on to a vaulted area, with a
semicircular-arched doorway with coved reveals and a cartouche
inscribed 1902, and 2 pairs of half-glazed doors. Side windows
have 3 lights and moulded lintels. Festoon panels over the
outer windows.
INTERIOR: 2 large halls with barrel-vaulted glazed roofs,
separated by a double staircase. The front hall is 6 bays long
and 3 wide, a balcony on carved figure brackets above the door
extends round the sides, and an arcade above with piers to the
roof; reliefs of painters' names to each side bay in swagged
panels. An imperial stair reached through an arched screen, of
Corinthian columns to a second-floor balustrade, supported
over a first-floor balcony by marble columns. Behind is a
further stair with paired columns under a Diocletian wndow.
The rear hall is 4 bays long, a ground-floor arcade of
segmental arches, a Doric frieze and first-floor arcade, with
paired Corinthian columns separated by paired semicircular
arches on marble columns, and a balustrade. Each end has a
Venetian arch under a Diocletian window.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached rock-faced walls to the front
have 4 good lanterns on pedestals. The building was paid for
by Sir H Wills, and is Bristol's only major public building of
the period. A well contrived and lit interior to match the
weight of the front; '..a free Baroque design of magnificent
proportions' (Crick).
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 391; Crick C: Victorian Buildings in
Bristol: Bristol: 1975-: 62; The Buildings of England: Pevsner
N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 417).

Listing NGR: ST5805973230

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery at Wikipedia
• Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery official website
• Wikidata Q4968867

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.

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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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