Description

ST 58787293 BRISTOL ST NICHOLAS STREET, Centre
(North east side)

Bristol Stock Exchange and
attached railings
4.3.77

GV II*

Office. 1903. By H Williams. limestone ashlar with black and red granite dressings, roof not visible.
Edwardian Italian Mannerist style. Single storey; 4-window range. A tetrastyle pedimented temple front with black granite Corinthian columns on red granite bases, set forward with left-hand entrance and 1-window right-hand sections set back; banded sections, fluted above, to a plat band, frieze with swag and an entablature with modillion cornice and panelled parapet. An ornate entrance has paired granite half-columns and responds to an entablature set forward above, a broken segmental pediment with Mannerist volutes; in the centre is a projecting shell hood niche with a segmental pediment on top and dated cartouche, flanked by carved put ti representing justice and Enterprise; a semicircular-arched doorway has square 314 columns, carved key and arched 10-panel double doors. The pediment has an entablature with an exposed iron beam, carved frieze with swag, and large carved City arms in the tympanum. Windows arched as the doorway with Corinthian columns set in the reveals and keys with carved faces; panelled aprons. Crossed branches in the spandrels.
INTERIOR: an exceptionally rich interior, surviving in fine condition. Tile-lined entrance lobby {with beaten bronze lantern), vestibule and stairs to ground floor, with tulip motifs. Top-lit vestibule with Portland stone pilasters on pink granite bases; wooden door cases with egg and dart mouldings, glazed double doors with Art Nouveau handles; wooden screen behind reception desk with Ionic pilasters; wooden fireplace surround with red marble slips and Ionic mantelpiece; mosaic floor. Dealing room, top-lit with lantern, with coved ceiling rising up from dentil cornice; four pendant gilt lights each with six cut glass lanterns. Recessed entrance flanked by pair of Norwegian 'Black Pearl' granite columns with marble Corinthian capitals, with pink granite dado and bases, and surmounted with a lunette with clock and pierced gilt metal screen. Flanking pairs of similar but giant Corinthian columns in front of marble pilasters. Half height wooden fielded panelling incorporates sloping notice-boards to street elevation. Three arched windows to street. Elaborate two-stage wooden chimneypiece to south wall with dentil cornice, flanked by blackboards within egg and dart surrounds; Ionic pilasters to lower level flank oak relief by B. Creswick, depicting 'Commerce Uniting the Nations', and a fire surround of mixed marbles, with curved fender seat; paired Ionic pilasters at upper level flank tripartite arch and swags. Ante-room with wooden bolection-moulded fireplace surround, veined marble slips, flanking Ionic columns with dentil cornice and mantelpiece with tripartite arch. Stairs leading to basement, top-lit with oval lantern, with wrought iron rails, shell-headed niches, dark green tiles to dado height and lemon yellow above; bronze Mannerist dedication cartouche beneath twin-light bracket lamp, inscribed 'THIS TABLET WAS PLACED HERE BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BRISTOLSTOCK EXCHANGETO RECORDTHE GIFTOFTHIS BUILDINGTOTHE EXCHANGE BYTHEIR PRESIDENT GEORGE WHITE AUGUST 1903'. Basement contains board room and lavatories. Board room entered through double doors with etched and bevelled glass panels. Half height wooden panelling in Jacobean style, with glazed fronts to upper lockers, and cupboards below; elaborate chimney surround with fender seat, pink marble surround, squat Ionic columns to mantelpiece with egg and dart-enriched arch; scrolled Art Nouveau bracket lamps to walls. Unaltered male lavatories with tiled walls and floors; trio of tiled niches containing marble basins, fireplace with mirrored mantelpiece, pair of lavatory cubicles.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached wrought-iron railings with spikes between the columns. Doorway based on St Mary's, Oxford.
(Mowl T: Bristol, The Last Age of the Merchant Princes: Bristol: 1991-: 77).

Listing NGR: ST5878772942

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17552789

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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