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Hall

Guildhall

Located in Bristol (city-county) in Gloucestershire : Bristol
Guildhall
Performance Space: Hall
Description / History (pre-1642)

The original dimensions are not recoverable but an early 19th c. witness has left a description of the hall as it remained before demolition:

'On entering the hall the visitor is somewhat impressed by an idea of its antiquity, arising, in a great measure, from the character of its early Gothic and lofty roof, which from its high pitch, would indicate its erection before the end of the fifteenth century, after which period they were made considerably lower. The tie-beams are supported on rainbow arches, springing from corbels, representing the figure of an angel, with expanded wings, supporting a shield, an ornament in general use from the latter part of the fourteenth century to the early part of the sixteenth. The spaces between the rafters, now ceiled with plaster, were originally left open to the actual frame timbers, as was the case with the Norman roof' ('Rambling observations,' Pt 1).

History (post-1642)

In the 19th c. there were 2 galleries projecting from each end of the W wall: 'Under the South gallery is an entrance to the room appropriated to witnesses: the massive thickness of its walls is evident in the sides of a long flat-headed window divided by three stone mullions, and also in the adjoining recess, now containing a small window, but which appears to have been originally a door-way. A portion of the walls are pannelled, surmounted with an ornamented frieze, and the dimensions of the ancient chimney-piece, of which some of the mouldings remain, can still be faintly discerned in the modern masonry by which has been diminished of its fair proportions' ('Rambling observations,' Pt 1).