The Wills Memorial Building, Bristol University, and Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
Image by ell brown
I saw the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and SS Great Britain (from the car) but was unable to get them from foot.
Instead I only got the Museum and University.
The main museum and art gallery in the city of Bristol
A red brick University in Bristol. It is next door to the Museum and Art Gallery
a memorial building part of Bristol Uni, in memory of Henry Overton Wills III designed by Sir George Oatley.
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery is a Grade II* listed building.
Museum and gallery. Dated 1899-1904. By Sir F Wills. Limestone ashlar, roof not visible. Rectangular open plan in 2 sections. Edwardian Baroque style. 3 storeys; 3-window range. A monumental front has a deeply projecting centre over a porte cochere. Vermiculated outer quoins to a frieze, modillion cornice and parapet; centre has a rock-faced plinth to a band, vermiculated ground floor to a plat band, and paired Ionic clasping pilasters. The centre section breaks forward, with paired Ionic columns from the first floor to a pediment surmounted by an outer balustrade and central pedestal with Beaux Arts statuary. First-floor half-domed 5-light mullion bow, under a raised panel inscribed THE GIFT OF SIR HENRY WILLIAM WILLS BART TO HIS FELLOW CITIZENS 1904, and a large carving of the city arms. To each side are relief carvings of artists' palettes. Outer semicircular-arched 3-light mullion windows and a key, with stained glass; above are swagged panels. The porte cochere has semicircular arches front and side with coved reveals and large keys giving on to a vaulted area, with a semicircular-arched doorway with coved reveals and a cartouche inscribed 1902, and 2 pairs of half-glazed doors. Side windows have 3 lights and moulded lintels. Festoon panels over the outer windows. INTERIOR: 2 large halls with barrel-vaulted glazed roofs, separated by a double staircase. The front hall is 6 bays long and 3 wide, a balcony on carved figure brackets above the door extends round the sides, and an arcade above with piers to the roof; reliefs of painters' names to each side bay in swagged panels. An imperial stair reached through an arched screen, of Corinthian columns to a second-floor balustrade, supported over a first-floor balcony by marble columns. Behind is a further stair with paired columns under a Diocletian wndow. The rear hall is 4 bays long, a ground-floor arcade of segmental arches, a Doric frieze and first-floor arcade, with paired Corinthian columns separated by paired semicircular arches on marble columns, and a balustrade. Each end has a Venetian arch under a Diocletian window. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached rock-faced walls to the front have 4 good lanterns on pedestals. The building was paid for by Sir H Wills, and is Bristol's only major public building of the period. A well contrived and lit interior to match the weight of the front; '..a free Baroque design of magnificent proportions' (Crick). (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 391; Crick C: Victorian Buildings in Bristol: Bristol: 1975-: 62; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 417).
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery - Heritage Gateway
The University tower is a Grade II* listed building.
University building. 1914-25. By Sir George Oatley. Extended c1950 by Ralph Bretnall. Limestone ashlar with ashlar cross axial stacks and slate roofs. Tower, 3 sided quadrangle to the right, left-hand block, and rear hall; double-depth plan. Perpendicular Gothic Revival style. Plinth, windows with Perpendicular panel tracery, cornices with grotesques and stepped crenellated parapets. Very large 2-stage square tower and octagonal belfry has massive clasping buttresses with ashlar corners; central doorway has a splayed Tudor arch with octagonal buttresses, a frieze above with 9 carved figures in niches, and half-glazed traceried 2-leaf doors. Large 2-centred arched window above has 3 transoms and 2 king mullions, to blind traceried panels with pairs of painted shields. Second stage has a Tudor arch between the buttresses beneath a panelled wall, over 3 ogee-headed windows separated by pinnacle buttresses. Octagonal tops to the buttresses with corner pinnacles and swept caps. Belfry has tripartite windows to each side, flanking ones blind, and panel tracery above. To the left is a single-storey screen with parapet, 4 bays with mullion windows, and a canted left-of-centre bay with a Tudor-arched door; behind is a 2 storey symmetrical block with a tall canted bay, and Tudor-arched window above set back between wide ashlar buttresses. The quadrangle has a rear 3 storey, 7-bay range, with buttresses between full-height Tudor-arched 4-light windows, and a central 3-window canted bay with 3-light windows, all with Tudor-arched heads, and ogee-headed upper ones. To the right is a squat square 3-bay tower with octagonal clasping turrets, and a forward projecting 5-bay wing with similar windows to the rear of the quad, a gabled end elevation with large clasping octagonal turrets and a central full-height canted bay. To the right set back is a mid C20 extension in a similar style. The Great Hall to the rear has 6 bays separated by flying buttresses, and aisles with shallow segmental-arched 5-light mullion windows between the buttresses to a parapet. To rear of E courtyard projects the Council Room, polygonal with 9 bays divided by buttresses, 3-light windows with panel tracery, the inner windows blind. INTERIOR: a fine and consistent late Gothic style interior with good blind-tracery stone panelling, joinery and plasterwork. A very large 3-bay entrance hall has panelled tracery walls and fan vaulting; in the belfry is Britain's 4th largest bell 'Great George'. A long stair to each side of the hall rises to three 2-centre arches below an enriched wall divided into 3 by buttresses, and a 7-bay cross passage with fan vaulting, and Tudor-arched doors to the Great Hall. This has 6 bays with large trilobate stone arches at each end, to a 5-bay N apse containing the organ, and a S balcony on timber fan vaults. Linenfold panelling all round. Hammer beam roof on large corbels, tracery panels over the bracing and large openwork pendents. In the left-hand block is the Reception Room, 3 fully-panelled bays with elliptical arches at each end, 2 Tudor-arched fireplaces, and panelled plaster ceiling with pendents. Council Room has attached piers to a vaulted roof with intersecting ribs, forming a 14-sided ceiling light with tracery glazing bars. The inner wall has a wide segmental arch over 5 blind windows with tracery panels and shields. Linenfold panelling. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached dwarf walls extend approx 20m W and 40m E of the tower, with 4 tall cast-iron lamps. HISTORICAL NOTE: The university started as the College of Science and Literature in 1876 and received its charter in 1909. The tower is "up to the boldest Gothic displays of Yale" (Pevsner), and "...a masterpiece, monumental in scale and the dominating landmark of the city." (Crick) The Great Hall was gutted in the Second World War, and subsequently rebuilt. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 323; Crick C: Victorian Buildings in Bristol: Bristol: 1975-: 70; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 417).
University Tower and Wills Memorial Building - Heritage Gateway
Queensland Art Gallery
Image by Wojtek Gurak
designed by Robin Gibson. Brisbane
04.10.2010 - + 600 views - thank you all.
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Australian Accent inspires young designers
Image by Mosman Council
Two groups of students studying interior design at the Enmore Design Centre have enjoyed the tours of Australian Accent. Like most visitors to the exhibition they were unaware of the story behind Annan Fabrics and the existence of Vande Pottery.
The students were curious about the lasting impact of the bold designs and wanted to investigate the possibility of reviving the copyright. Many are going to attend the Textile Design Symposium on the 26th of September and are keen to ask the panel of experts about this.
They commented on the success of previous designers such as the famous Florence Broadhurst whose designs from the ‘60s and ‘70s are still produced today.
Australian Accent: the Designs of Annan Fabrics and Vande Pottery of the '40s and '50s is on exhibition at Mosman Art Gallery from Sat 4 September – Sun 10 October. The exhibition showcases two Mosman businesses that featured distinctive Australian designs using native flora, fauna and Aboriginal motifs.
gallery
Image by Marcelle Guilbeau
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