Bristol Byzantine is a variety of

Byzantine Revival architecture Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orth ...

that was popular in the city of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

from about 1850 to 1880. Many buildings in the style have been destroyed or demolished, but notable surviving examples include the Colston Hall, the

Granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...

on Welsh Back, the Carriage Works on

Stokes Croft Stokes Croft is a road in Bristol, England. It is part of the A38 road (England), A38, a main road north of the city centre. Locals refer to the area around the road by the same name. The road became a centre of industry during the mid-19th cen ...

and several of the buildings around Victoria Street. Several of the warehouses around the harbour have survived including the Arnolfini, which now houses an art gallery. Clarks Wood Company warehouse and the St Vincent's Works in Silverthorne Lane and the Wool Hall in St Thomas Street are other survivors from the 19th century.

Style

Bristol Byzantine has influences from

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and

Moorish architecture Moorish architecture is a style within Islamic architecture which developed in the western Islamic world, including al-Andalus (on the Iberian peninsula) and what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (part of the Maghreb). The term "Moorish" com ...

applied mainly to industrial buildings such as warehouses and factories. The style is characterised by a robust and simple outline, materials with character and coloured polychrome brickwork including red, yellow, black and white brick primarily from the

Cattybrook Brickpit Cattybrook Brickpit is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Almondsbury, South Gloucestershire, notified in 1989. It began as a clay pit and brickworks. History The Cattybrook Brick Company was established in ...

. Several buildings included archways and upper floors unified through either horizontal or vertical grouping of window openings. The first building with some of the characteristics generally thought of a Bristol Byzantine is Bush House, which is now known as the Arnolfini a 19th-century Grade II* listed

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and norther ...

warehouse situated on the side of the

Floating Harbour Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out per ...

Bristol city centre Bristol City Centre is the commercial, cultural and business centre of Bristol, England. It is the area north of the New Cut of the River Avon, bounded by Clifton Wood and Clifton to the north-west, Kingsdown and Cotham to the north, and ...

. The architect was Richard Shackleton Pope, who constructed first the south part of the warehouse (1831) then extended it to the north in 1835–36. It has a rock-faced plinth, three storeys of rectangular windows recessed within tall round arches, and a shallow attic. The style may have come about as a result of an acquaintance between William Venn Gough and Archibald Ponton, who designed the Granary and

John Addington Symonds John Addington Symonds, Jr. (; 5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies of writers and artists. Although m ...

the Bristol-born historian of the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the tran ...

. The term Bristol Byzantine is thought to have been invented by Sir John Summerson. File:Browns Restaurant - Bristol Byzantine.jpg, Browns Restaurant File:Victoria Court - Bristol byzantine.jpg, Victoria Court File:Robinsons Warehouse Bristol Byzantine.jpg, Robinsons Warehouse File:Granary, Welsh Back - Bristol Byzantine brickwork detail.jpg, Granary File:Robinsons Warehouse Bristol oblique.jpg, Robinson's Warehouse File:Arnolfini arts centre, Bristol, England arp.jpg, The Arnolfini arts centre, the first example of the Bristol Byzantine style.

Architects

* R. Milverton Drake * John Foster * William Bruce Gingell *

Edward William Godwin Edward William Godwin (26 May 1833, Bristol – 6 October 1886, London) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic " Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by ...

* William Venn Gough * John Henry Hirst * Thomas Royse Lysaght * Archibald Ponton * Richard Shackleton Pope

Examples of buildings in the Byzantine architecture style

* 35 King Street (c. 1870) * Brown's Restaurant (1871) * Carriage Works (1862) * Clarks Wood Company warehouse (1863) * Colston Hall (1860s) * Former Gardiners offices (1865–1867) * Gardiners warehouse (1865) * Granary, Bristol (1869) * Robinson's Warehouse (1874) * St Vincent's Works * Warehouse premises of Hardware (Bristol) Limited (1882) * Wool Hall, Bristol (1830) * Arnolfini (1831)

References in modern culture

* "Bristol Byzantine" is the name of a track by

The Blue Aeroplanes The Blue Aeroplanes are an English rock band from Bristol, the mainstays of which have been Gerard Langley, brother John Langley, and dancer Wojtek Dmochowski. All three had previously been members of the New wave music, new wave "art band" Ar ...

on their 2006 album ''Altitude''.

References

{{Revivals . . Victorian architectural styles Architectural history 19th century in Bristol Moorish Revival architecture Brick buildings and structures Neo-Byzantine architecture

Style

Architects

Examples of buildings in the Byzantine architecture style

References in modern culture

See also

References