Description

CLEVEDON VICTORIA ROAD
ST 4071
1/125 St Brandon's School
for Girls

GV II*

House, now school. 1850, by J Foster and J Wood for Conrad Finzel;
later additions to rear. Coursed rubble with ashlar dressings;
fishscale patterns to slate roofs; stone stacks. Central-stairhall
plan to main block, with rear service wings and library. Jacobethan
style. 2 storeys and attic; symmetrical 7-bay range. Projecting outer
bays with finials to shaped gables, both linked by single-storey
loggia with open spandrels to arcade, triglyph frieze and openwork
parapet with cresting over central entrance with flanking columns and
panelled round-headed doors. Central and outer bays framed by banded
pilasters and string courses; similar openwork parapet between outer
bays with scrolled pediment to centre. Stone-mullioned and transomed
windows, of 2 lights to central bays and of 3-lights to outer bays
which have scrolled pediments and cartouches and curved ground-floor
bow windows with similar parapets. Similar 3-bay right-hand return
with large stair window of 3 two-light geometrical Gothic-style
windows with diamond-leaded lights above broken-pedimented door
architrave with tapered pilasters and shell tympanum; 5-bay arcade to
conservatory further to rear. Left-hand return has arcaded porch set
in angle of projecting bay with shaped gable which adjoins tower to
rear with cupola and oculi to shaped dormers to rear. Rear elevations
in similar but plainer style. Interior: panelled doors and shutters,
those to ground-floor main rooms more richly treated with decorative
brass fittings. Variety of classical and Jacobethan-style fireplaces.
Enriched and moulded cornices to most rooms. Panelled vestibule with
corbels to segmental-arched ceilings; grand doorway to hall has
trefoiled arch. framing decorative iron tympanum over double doors
flanked by tapered pilasters to console brackets. Panelled hall has
cantilevered-out balcony to landing with Jacobean strapwork
balustrade, carved pendentives and Ionic newels. Dog-leg stair with
Jacobean strapwork balustrade, similar newels and pendentives and
figures of Gothic knights holding lamps; panelled ceiling, glazed to
centre, has enriched cornices, pendants and strapwork etc; trefoil-
arched arcades each end of hall with tapered Ionic pilasters and
console brackets; Jacobethan-style fireplace with caryatids and fine
decorative tiles. Large doorway to library: fittings removed from
Leigh Court (qv), a Greek-Revival mansion of 1814 by Thomas Hopper;
2 fine marble fireplaces with carvings of the serpent in the Garden
of Eden; bookcases all framed by pilasters and frieze with stylised
Ionic capitals to naturalistic brass plates; two sets of panelled
double doors each end. To right is room with dentilled cornices,
strapwork and putti etc to, lincrusta frieze and Elizabethan-style
marble fireplace with caryatids; this is set in ingle with flanking
benches set against panelled screen with carved Ionic pilasters and
turned newel to projecting entablature with lions' masks to strapwork
frieze; shell niche to corner cupboard.
This house was formerly known as Clevedon Hall. Finzel made his
fortune by inventing a vacuum device to evaporate moisture from sugar.
It was later occupied by Charles Hill, the Bristol shipbuilder, and
by St Brandon's School for Girls between 1945 and 1991.

Listing NGR: ST4005171122

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Clevedon Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q23018610

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)