Trail:

Red Lodge

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Bristol, Red Lodge, Park Row

Now a museum. A remarkable late ElizabethanGlossary Term lodge, c.1577-85, with exceptional interiors. The site belonged to a 13th century Carmelite foundation. In 1568 Sir John Young acquired it, and quickly built a mansion, (demolished for Colston Hall, 1863). There he entertained Queen Elizabeth in 1574, and was knighted during her stay. Red Lodge was Young's garden lodge, of Brandon Hill sandstone originally rendered and painted deep red, with an open arched loggiaGlossary Term to the garden - an Italian RenaissanceGlossary Term idea. It became an independent dwelling by 1595. In the 17th century rooms were added around the stair turret, all altered again in an extensive updating c.1720-30. Gables were replaced by hipped roofs with eavesGlossary Term corniceGlossary Term, long sash windows installed and the north side remodelled around a new staircase. The loggiaGlossary Term was glazed in to extend the ground floor. In the Reception Room is a 18th century bolection moulded chimneypiece. The parlourGlossary Term has a 16th century ribbed and moulded ceiling and chimneypiece with cambered opening and scroll patterned friezeGlossary Term. The New Oak Room contains a fireplace from Ashley Manor and panellingGlossary Term from St. Michael's rectory (q.v.) nearby. By chance the corniceGlossary Term is virtually identical to that in the Great Oak Room, presumably by the same maker. The nobly proportioned oak staircase has three twisted balusters per treadGlossary Term and IonicGlossary Term columnGlossary Term newels.

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Bristol, Red Lodge

But the tour de force is the first floor best chamber, called the Great Oak Room. Almost unaltered, it is among the most elaborate English interiors of its date. Entry is via a timber inner porch: others were at, e.g., Montacute House. It was believed to be a later addition but the construction suggests not, in any case Young's arms place it before 1589. ShellGlossary Term headed doors are framed by paired CompositeGlossary Term columns. The entablatureGlossary Term has a friezeGlossary Term of winged beasts and foliage. Above is a second tier, even richer, with paired terms instead of columns. Its corniceGlossary Term does not match the rest of the room. On this tier are the arms of Young and his wife, projecting so far they seem to float over the structure. Not an inch escapes embellishment. The room is fully panelled, with an arcaded dadoGlossary Term below smaller arch-headedGlossary Term panels and an enriched modillion corniceGlossary Term. Another geometricGlossary Term ribbed ceiling, with five pendants, vase and foliage motifs, winged cherubs, pomegranates etc., and dim GothicGlossary Term remembrances in ogeeGlossary Term trefoils. Dominating all is the only major Bristol school chimneypiece still in situGlossary Term. It is very big and high, of richly carved limestone, with alabaster panels depicting Young's arms and panels of Hope, Faith, Justice and Prudence. The strapworkGlossary Term cartoucheGlossary Term in the overmantelGlossary Term and the paired terms are copied from mid 16th century prints by Jan Vredeman de Vries.

In Red Lodge gardens is the barn-like WIGWAM, by C.F.W. Dening c.1920. Home of the Savages art society. Fittings include two chimneypieces, one of 1682 from the Goat in Armour Inn, with open segmental pedimentGlossary Term and seated figures, but still a cambered fire-opening. The other, marked 16 RMS 74, came from the house of Richard Stubbs, a wine merchant of St. Michael's. The overmantelGlossary Term has arabesques, vine trails and tapering Jacobean pilasters, very archaic for that date.

Glossary

Arch

Types include: Basket arch or Anse de Panier (French, lit. basket handle): three-centred and depressed, or with a flat centre. Chancel: dividing chancel from nave or crossing in a church. Crossing: spanning piers at a crossing in a church. Depressed or three-centred: with a rounded top, but curving inward more at the sides. Four-centred: with four arcs, the lower two curving inward more than the upper, with a blunt central point; typical of late medieval English architecture. Jack arch: shallow segmental vault springing from beams, used for fireproof floors, bridge decks, etc. Ogee (adjective ogival): a pointed arch with a double reverse curve, especially popular in the 14th century; a nodding ogee curves forward from the wall face at the top. Parabolic: shaped like a chain suspended from two level points, but inverted. Relieving or discharging: incorporated in a wall to relieve superimposed weight. Shouldered: with arcs in each corner and a flat centre or lintel. Skew: spanning responds not diametrically opposed. Stilted: with a vertical section above the impost i.e. the horizontal moulding at the springing. Strainer: inserted in an opening to resist inward pressure. Three-centred: see Depressed, above. Transverse: spanning a main axis (e.g. of a vaulted space). Triumphal arch: influential type of Imperial Roman monument, free-standing, with a square attic or top section and broad sections to either side of the main opening, often with lesser openings or columns. Tudor: with arcs in each corner joining straight lines to the central point. Two-centred: the simplest kind of pointed arch.

Cartouche

Classical tablet with ornate frame.

Column

An upright structural member, especially in the classical styles, of round section and with a shaft, a capital, and usually a base.

Composite

One of the orders of classical architecture in which the capital of the column combines the volutes of the Ionic order with the foliage of the Corinthian.

Cornice

Flat-topped ledge with moulded underside, projecting along the top of a building or feature, especially as the highest member of the classical entablature. Also the decorative moulding in the angle between wall and ceiling. An eaves cornice overhangs the edge of a roof.

Dado

The finishing (often with panelling) of the lower part of a wall, usually in a classical interior; in origin a formalized continuous pedestal. Dado rail: the moulding along the top of the dado.

Eaves

Overhanging edge of a roof; hence eaves cornice in this position.

Elizabethan

The English architecture of the later 16th century, marked by a decorative use of Renaissance ornament and a preference for symmetrical fa

Entablature

In classical architecture, collective name for the three horizontal members (architrave, frieze and cornice) carried by a wall.

Frieze

The middle member of the classical entablature, sometimes ornamented. Pulvinated frieze (lit. cushioned): of bold convex profile. Also a horizontal band of ornament.

Geometric

English Gothic architecture c. 1240-1290. During this period the French invention of bar tracery allowed for larger windows subdivided by stone mullions and tracery, in place of the single lancets of the Early English style. Geometrical tracery is the earliest kind of this bar tracery, i.e. with patterns formed by intersecting moulded ribwork continuing upwards from the mullions, using simple forms, especially circles, chiefly foiled.

Gothic

The style of the Middle Ages from the later 12th century to the Renaissance, with which it co-existed in certain forms into the 17th century. Characterized in its full development by the pointed arch, the rib-vault and an often skeletal masonry structure for churches, combined with large glazed windows. The term was originally associated with the concept of the barbarian Goths as assailants of classical civilization.

In situ

Of concrete, cast in position on the building.

Ionic

One of the orders of classical architecture, distinguished in particular by downward- and inward-curling spirals (called volutes) on the capital of the column.

Jacobean

The style of early 17th-century England, called after James I (reigned 1603-25), but common into the middle decades. Not always distinguishable from the preceding Elizabethan manner, with which it shares a fondness for densely applied classical ornament and symmetrical gabled façades.

Loggia

(Italian): A gallery or room with regular openings along one main side, sometimes free-standing.

Ogee

A double curve, bending first one way and then the other. An ogee or ogival arch, especially popular in the 14th century, is pointed at the top. A nodding ogee curves forward from the wall face at the top.

Overmantel

An ornamented or painted feature above a fireplace.

Panelling

Wooden lining to interior walls, made up of vertical members (muntins) and horizontals (rails) framing panels; also called wainscot. Raised and fielded: with the central area of the panel (field) raised up. Also used for stonework treated with sunk or raised panels.

Parlour

In an abbey or monastery, a room for talking to visitors in; in a medieval house, the semi-private living room below the solar or upper chamber.

Pediment

A formalized gable derived from that of a classical temple; also used over doors, windows etc. A broken pediment has its apex omitted. An open pediment has the centre of the base omitted. A broken pediment with double-curved sides is called a swan-neck pediment.

Renaissance

The revival of classical architecture that began in 15th-century Italy and spread through Western Europe and the Americas in the following two centuries, finding distinctive forms and interpretations in different states and regions. From c. 1830 the Italian version was revived in Britain as a style in its own right (sometimes called Neo-Renaissance or Italianate), i.e. as distinguished from the native Georgian classical tradition.

Shell

Thin, self-supporting roofing membrane of timber or concrete.

Strapwork

Late 16th and early 17th-century decoration, like interlaced leather straps.

Tread

Horizontal part of a step. The tread end may be carved on a staircase.

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