Grand Bridge, Blenheim
Description: Grand Bridge
Grade: II
Date Listed: 27 August 1957
English Heritage Building ID: 252996
OS Grid Reference: SP4389316414
OS Grid Coordinates: 443893, 216414
Latitude/Longitude: 51.8446, -1.3642
Location: Blenheim, Oxfordshire OX20 1PX
Locality: Blenheim
Local Authority: West Oxfordshire
County: Oxfordshire
Country: England
Postcode: OX20 1PX
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Listing Text
BLENHEIM
SP41NW
2/14 Grand Bridge
27/08/57
GV I
Bridge. c.1706-1712. By Sir John Vanburgh. Limestone ashlar. Semi-circular
archway, with blocked voussoirs, flanked by 2-storey square projecting bays:
each bay has segmental-arched opening with keystone linked to bracketed cornice
and with bracketed sill, above niche. Outer bays have rusticated semi-circular
arches and bands of frosted rustication beneath parapet. Canted abutments have
rusticated quoin strips. The bridge was left unfinished when work on the palace
stopped in 1712: Vanbrugh intended the central span to be surmounted by tall
arcades within corner towers, thus making a version of Palladio's Rialto Bridge.
The bridge, which spanned virtual marshland before Capability Brown made the
lake, has over 30 rooms, some with chimneypieces and dish vaulting, and was
first conceived as a habitable viaduct. The masons were Peisley and Townesend.
(Buildings of England: Oxfordshire: p473; National Monuments Record; K. Downes,
Hawkesmoor, 1959, p282; K. Downes, Vanbrugh, 1977, pp72-3; D. Green, Blenheim
Palace, 1951, pp100-102, 117, 127;Blenheim Park is included in the HBMC Register
of Parks and Gardens at Grade I)
Listing NGR: SP4389316414
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence: PSI Click-use licence number C2008002006.