1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



413 



NEW SCHOOL BUILDINGS FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH'S 



HOSPITAL, BRISTOL. 



Architects, Messrs. Foster and Son, of Bristol. 



(With an Engraving, Plate XVI.) 



This charity was established under an Act of Parliament passed 

 in the 39th year of Elizabeth, the said act having been obtained by 

 the trustees of tiie will of John Carr, gentleman, of the city of Bristol, 

 who at his death left the principal part of his property for the found- 

 ing and endowment of this charity. The object of the institution, as 

 set forth in the said will, was "for the bringing up of poor children 

 and orphans in such order, manner, and form, aud with such founda- 

 tion, ordinances, laws and government as the hospital of Christ Church, 

 nigh St. Bartholomew's hospital, in London," From this time down 

 to the present century this charity has been enriched by gifts and 

 bequests from many of the principal merchants aud inhabitants of 

 Bristol, among whom the names of Edward Colston, Lady Mary Ram- 

 sey, James Gollop, Samuel Hartnell, William Bird, Thomas Farmer, 

 Richard Hughes, and Samuel Gist stand conspicuous. 



The building originally purchased for the purposes of this charity 

 was the commodious premises near College Green, now occupied by 

 the Grammar School, which latter was formerly held in St. Bartholo- 

 mew's Hospital, situate in one of the low parts of the city. By an 

 Act of Parliament, obtained in the 9th year of George III., these two 

 buildings were exchanged the one for the other, and since that period 

 Queen Elizabeth's Hospital has been carried on in the last mentioned 

 building. Until the late changes in reference to the public charities, 

 40 boys only were clothed and educated with the funds of this charity, 

 but since that period the numbers have been increased to 100, the 

 greatest number that can possibly be accommodated in the present 

 building, but the funds being amply sufficient to provide for a much 

 larger number, by the permission of the Court of Chancery a very 

 eligible site for new buildings has been purchased, and contracts en- 

 tered into for the ereclion of a noble and commodious edifice suitable 

 for the reception of 200 boys. 



The site selected for the building is a sloping field of about 4 acres 

 situate on the side of Brandon Hill, it is rather a commanding one and 

 extremely salubrious, and the premises will form a connecting link 

 between the fashionable suburb of Clifton and the ancient portion of 

 the borough. 



The basement story of the building will be raised about 28 feet above 

 the level of the road, and will be approached by a broad flight of 40 

 steps opposite the centre of the building, with a carriage drive on 

 either side all communicating with a terrace extending the entire 

 length of the main building. A noble staircase, with panelled free- 

 stone balustrade or parapet, leads from the entrance hall to the centre 

 of the principal floor, where it has the master's apartments behind it, 

 commanding the play grounds ; the school room, class rooms, teachers' 

 sitting rooms, library and lavatory on the right hand, and the dining 

 room, the baths, &c. on the left hand. This floor is on a level with 

 the play ground, which is divided into two terraces, the first of which 

 400 feet long and 90 feet broad, and is provided with two spacious 

 arcades for the accommodation of the boys in wet weather. At an 

 elevation of IG feet above this is a second terrace 320 feet long and 

 70 feet broad ; these terraces will have a smooth gravelled surface, 

 and will be provided with a fives court, and in the arcades will be 

 gymnasia and other means of recreation; above the terraces will be 

 a private garden for the master, which will command a view of the 

 entire grounds. On the next story are three large dormitories which 

 are overlooked by the bedrooms of the ushers ; and on the third story 

 in the centre of the building are the sick and convalescent wards witli 

 the necessary appendages. Large iron tanks are provided in the an- 

 gular turrets in case of fire. The basement story contains the matron's 

 apartments and store rooms in the centre, on the left hand the offices 

 connected with the culinary department with an apparatus for raising 

 the provisions to the dining room, and on the right a large wardrobe 

 or dressing room. 



The dimensions of the principal apartments are as under: — 

 ft. ft. ft. ft. 



Entrance hall. . 3(iby2G Bathroom .... 55 by 19 

 Dining room.. 85 ^2 Two dormitories 85 32 each. 



.•schoolroom.. 70 32 One ditto 00 26 



Lavatory .... 55 19 Dressing room.. 85 32 



The walls are to be built with a species of sandstone, raised upon 

 the site, with Bath stone dressings, which will produce a pleasing 

 coiitr.ist with the warmer tint ot the other stone. The ceilings ot 

 the principal rooms are divided into panels by moulded cast iron 

 bearers, serving as girders and binders for the floors above. 



No. 87.— Vol. VIJ— November, 1844. 



Contracts have been entered into by the trustees, under the sanc- 

 tion of the court, for the erection and completion of the building for 

 the sum of £13,9 12 18s. The masons are Messrs. Willcox and Sons ; 

 the carpenter Mr. R. Hamlen ; the slater, plasterer and painter Mr. 

 Henry Lee, all of Bristol ; and the contracts are to be completed in the 

 autumn of 1846. 



[The wing on the right hand side of the building is not shown in 

 the engraving for want of room, it is however the same as the one on 

 the left hand side, with the exception of the door and small windows 

 in the basements story, which are omitted.] 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK. 

 FASCICULUS LX. 



" I must have liberty 

 Withal, as large a charter as the winds, 

 To blow on whom I please." 



I. My reply to Dr. Fulton ought to be one of thanks; not because 

 he has convinced me by his arguments any more than I have convinced 

 him by mine, but for the compliment he is pleased to pay me, — so 

 high a one as far as it goes that I might be well content with deserving 

 the quantum of praise he allows me, being under no great apprehension 

 that most others will consider me not sufficiently "correct," ortoo latitu- 

 dinarianin taste for vindicating in a derivativestyle, where windows, not 

 columns must be the essential features, a practice which he condemns 

 as both unauthorized by and incompatible with original Grecian archi- 

 tecture and its principles. — I cannot, however, let the Doctor off with- 

 out clearing myself from the charge of an inconsistency into which he 

 fancies I have fallen. I certainly spoke " with very decided appro- 

 val" of the houses in Maddox Street, where there are no pediments 

 to any of the windows. What then? — I have never said either in 

 this Note Book, or any where else, that a pediment is an essential and 

 indispensable part of the dressing to a window, — one that ought never 

 to be omitted but employed alike on every occasion and under all 

 circumstances. Were such the case, it would follow that all the win- 

 dows in a facade should have pediments without any distinction in 

 that respect. As well might the Doctor have remarked that the win- 

 dows in question have neither columns nor pilasters, and that I have 

 therefore rather inconsistently expressed my approbation of what 

 evidently falls far short of that degree of decoration which I am dis- 

 posed to allow of for windows. Far greater inconsistency would it be 

 in me to maintain that there should be but one uniform model for 

 doors and windows, and that the same character as to embellishment 

 ought to be preserved in every design. For my own part, I could 

 wish to see architects avail them far more frequently and more freely 

 than they now do, of the resources both in regard to composition and 

 detail which such features afford them ; and also see them abandon 

 stereotype and treat detail generally with more artistic feeling, adapting 

 it to the particular design and occasion; whereas at present many of 

 their compositions look no better than architectural centos, — as if, in 

 order to escape the charge of being wholesale plagiarists, they had 

 merely committed a series of petty larcenies, pilfering one feature 

 from one design, filching another from a second, and so on, till the 

 ensemble so produced looks very much like Miss Edgeworth's " Miss 

 Tracey," "a perfect monster formed of every creature's best : Lady 

 Kilrush's feathers, Mrs. Moore's wig, Mrs. O'Connor's gown, Mrs. 

 Leighton's sleeves, and all the necklaces of all the Miss Ormsbys." 



II. If Dr. Fulton be scandalized at pediments to windows in a style 

 which does not profess allegiance to Grecian precedent and taste, he 

 ought to be almost equally scandalized at windows being introduced 

 at all where the severity of the Greek temple style is both ostenta- 

 tiously and pedantically affected for the ensemble. As soon as we 

 begin to introduce windows the purity and genuine character of that 

 style are forfeited. There is but one alternative, either to abandon 

 the idea of applying that style in its classical seventy, and to modify 

 it accordingly, if windows there must be; or to arrange the plan so 

 that there shall be no occasion for windows on that side of the build- 

 ing which is to be d I'anligite, but make what is externally the front, 

 a screen facade coming at the rear of those principal apartments with- 

 in which must be lighted by side windows. At any rate if windows 

 there must be in a facade professedly classical, they ought to be as 

 few as possible, and as they cannot be got rid of, to be rendered noble 

 and ornamental features, as is the case with the doorways of ancient 

 temples. Were that done, beauty of design and riclmessofeftect might 

 reconcile us to such departure from the too obstinate severity of our 



36 



