Description

BRISTOL

ST5872NW COLLEGE GREEN
901-1/15/73 (South side)
04/03/77 The Great Gatehouse

GV I

Gatehouse. C12 archway built for Augustinian abbey founded
1140, included in late C15 gatehouse, restored and extended
mid C19 by J Pearson. Limestone ashlar with exterior stacks
and a lead roof. Single-depth plan. Norman style gateways,
Perpendicular Gothic style gatehouse and tower. 3 storeys;
3-window range.
A central gatehouse has a finely carved semicircular-arched
C12 gateway, with twisted columns to an arch with beaded
chevrons, and an architrave with Celtic-style interlacing. The
S side has 3 orders with cushion capitals. C19 buttresses, C15
inscribed cornice, and rosettes to the spandrels, beneath a
2-storey canted oriel with 4-light mullion and transom
windows, raised flowers to the panels beneath, and flanking
2-storey statue niches with canted canopies and statues of
kings. A band of quatrefoil panels below a cornice, blind
panelling to the crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles
to the angles.
The single-storey gatehouse to the right has a smaller
pedestrian archway, similar mouldings, but with the architrave
inside the arch. C15 first-floor mullion window with
Tudor-arched heads. C19 single-storey block to the left has an
angle buttress, and a 2-centre doorway in the return with a
crocketed hood, and ridged door.
Behind is a C15 three-stage tower with moulded strings and
matching panelled parapet, and an exterior stack with panelled
top. In the re-entrant is an octagonal stair turret to a
panelled top, and a crocketed ogee cap. The rear elevation has
4 storeys of 3-light mullion windows.
INTERIOR: the main archway has 2 quadripartite vaulted bays
separated by a chevron-moulded arch; the sides have arcades of
pointed-arched niches formed from intersecting semicircular
arches, with columns to cushion capitals and rope mouldings.
The Gatehouse has upstairs rooms with Tudor-arched fireplaces,
and oriels with tracery panels to the soffits; stone winder
stair.
The decoration of the arches and inner sides of the archway,
with the Chapter House (qv), is among the earliest use of the
pointed arch, and '...anticipated the impending Gothic'
(Gomme).
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and
Bristol: London: 1958-: 386).

Listing NGR: ST5828472684

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Great Gatehouse at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5599235

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)