Description

BRISTOL

ST5477 KINGS WESTON LANE, Shirehampton
901-1/24/1742 (South West side)
08/01/59 Kings Weston House

GV I

House. 1710-25. By Sir John Vanbrugh. Altered 1764-75 by
Robert Mylne. For Sir Robert Southwell. Limestone ashlar,
ashlar ridge stacks, roof not visible. U-shaped double-depth
plan. Baroque style. 2 storeys, attic and basement; 7-window
range.
An attached portico of 6 giant Corinthian columns, paired at
the ends, steps forward at the top of a flight of steps, with
flanking projecting ends, a cornice band under the attic
storey, and a string below a full-width parapet with large,
flaming corner urns; the small, central pedimented doorway has
tapering pilasters and 2-leaf half-glazed door. The portico
windows have semicircular heads and bracketed cills, with
6/6-pane sashes, and a lunette in the pediment; the ends each
have 2 windows with segmental heads and flat surrounds. A
chimney arcade of square stacks linked by semicircular arches
and an impost band follows the plan of the house.
The SE front has a central section with steps up to a
tripartite rusticated Doric doorcase with a wide, shallow
pediment, alternate vermiculated jambs to a C19 8/8-pane and
flanking plate-glass sashes, with a large key rising through
the open entablature; above is a large window with a cornice
on scrolled brackets, flanked by semicircular-arched windows.
Above the modillion cornice the attic string is broken by a
keyed, semicircular-arched window, below a raised, bracketed
parapet.
The NW front has a slightly projecting centre with a c1770
canted bay. The plainer rear NE elevation has a deep recess,
reduced by Mylne, and the chimney ranges turn in on
themselves.
INTERIOR: decoratively almost entirely of Mylne's
re-modelling, 1764-8, with plasterwork by Thomas Stocking. The
front Stone Hall or Saloon has a flagged floor, plaster
surrounds with garlands to portraits, and a palmette frieze at
the height of the pedimented doorcases, which have half Ionic
column jambs, and a grey marble fireplace by Derall.
The rear Stair Hall is the most unaltered part of the
interior, ground-floor semicircular-arched wall niches, with
paintings of 1719-20, and doorways all round, and a very fine
hanging open-well staircase to the first floor, with turned
balusters, fluted newels, curtail and ramped rail; open
galleries to the first and second floors and 9 late C18 roof
lights; a fine early C18 timber fireplace with fluted Ionic
pilsters and blue tiled back. Most of the other rooms have
neo-classical plaster decoration of the Mylne period. Original
vaulting to the basement.
HISTORICAL NOTE: built for Sir Robert Southwell, on the
foundations of the existing manor house, by George Townesend.
One of Vanbrugh's smallest houses, yet achieving a monumental
effect of great compression and tightness.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and
Bristol: London: 1958-: 469; Architectural History: Downes K:
Kings Weston Papers Catalogue: 1967-).

Listing NGR: ST5435777457

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Kings Weston House official website
• Wikidata Q26268192

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

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)