Details
ST 5873 SW,
901-1/10/304
BRISTOL,
TYNDALL'S AVENUE (South West side),
Royal Fort and attached front step railings
(Formerly Listed as: TYNDALL'S PARK Royal Fort House)
08.01.59
I
House, now university department. 1758-61. By James Bridges.
For Thomas Tyndall. Built by Thomas Paty; plasterwork by
Thomas Stocking; wood carving by Thomas Paty. Limestone ashlar
with 4 ridge stacks and a slate hipped roof.
Double-depth plan. 3 storeys; 7-window range N front, 5-window
ranges to S and W fronts. 3 symmetrical facades linked by a
plat band and first-floor sill band, modillion cornice and
parapet. Attached to the E is the pre-existing house,
converted to a service block.
N entrance front has a projecting 3-window centre under a
blind balustrade, a doorway with attached Ionic columns to an
entablature and pediment, fanlight and 6-panel door.
Semicircular-arched middle first-floor windows linked by an
impost band, and second-floor windows with 5 stepped
voussoirs. 6/6-pane sashes, 3/3-panes to the second floor.
The W front has a pedimented centre broken forward with a
rusticated ground floor, a finely-carved tympanum and
balustrades each side. Semicircular ground-floor arches to the
centre contain flat-headed windows, with 6/9-pane ground-floor
sashes, eared architraves on the first floor with outer
cornices and inner pediments to 6/6-pane sashes, and
architraves on the second floor, with corner ears to the
centre, to 3/3-pane sashes.
S front has a projecting centre containing a canted,
full-height bay with a balustrade and rusticated ground floor.
Outer doorways have architraves, moulded consoles to pediments
and 9-pane glazed doors, with fine rocaille carving over the
heads. Venetian windows above with triple keys,
semicircular-arched ground-floor windows to the bay, 5 stepped
voussoirs above with carved female keys, all with 6/6-pane
sashes, and 3/3-pane sashes to the third floor.
Attached to the E side is the earlier house, rendered with a
slate mansard. A linking late C18 two-storey; 2-window range
with parapet and bowed sides has French windows and 6/6-pane
first-floor sashes. Connects with an early C19 three-storey;
5-window range house to the right. Irregular fenestration,
including a right-of-centre Venetian window, 6/6-pane sashes
and second-floor casements.
INTERIOR: a very fine and complete scheme of interior
decoration, with much excellent Rococo and Classical
plasterwork, wood carving, and good fireplaces. Entrance hall
and central passage flagged with slate and marble, has a Doric
frieze with metopes; screen of 3 semicircular arches with
fluted fronts and panelled soffits, and flanking niches and
rocaille corbels. Stair hall to the left has an elliptical
arch with carved soffit, and plaster vines to each side, with
a good ceiling rose of 3 putti; fine open-well stair has a
moulded soffit, curtail, and sinuous wrought-iron balusters.
Dining room has an exceptional rocaille ceiling, marble
fireplace, and overmantel and door surround of rocaille wood
carving, including entwined door columns. Drawing room has a
similar ceiling, and a marble fireplace with carved corbels
possibly of Thomas and Alicia Tyndall. Panelled shutters,
6-panel doors.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached front steps, wrought-iron
railings and lamp holders, with snuffers.
A very fine design on an exposed site, with 3 good elevations.
Attribution of the design and execution is not certain, and
the 3 facades may have been the work of separate architects.
The grounds were landscaped by Humphry Repton in early C19.
The interior is in good condition, and remains '...the best
eighteenth-century domestic interior to survive in the city'
(Gomme).
(Gomme, A., Jenner, M. and Little, B.: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 155; Mowl, T.: To Build The Second
City: Bristol: 1991-; The Buildings of England: Pevsner, N.:
North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 418).
Listing NGR: ST5828373372
