Beech House, Stapleton, Bristol

Image: © Jez McNeill Taken: 14 Jun 2011

Grade II listed. Formerly known as: Stapleton Grove BELL HILL. House, now hospital offices. c1764. For Joseph Harford. Bath stone ashlar, copper roof. Double-depth plan. 2 storeys, basement and attic; 5-window range. Mid Georgian style. Central Doric portico with 4 columns on pedestals, entablature and cornice, with ramped steps either side, a glazed door with fine bars and an elaborate fanlight forms the entrance to the piano nobile with narrow lights either side, and steps either side down to basement door with a floating cornice on brackets; central first-floor window with shouldered architrave and cornice on consoles, the remaining windows plain with aluminium frames; C20 copper mansard attic and right-hand extension. Rear entrance with 6 steps and an iron handrail to an Ionic porch, with BEECH HOUSE inscribed on the entablature; semicircular doorway and 6-panel door. INTERIOR: fine hall divided by fluted Doric columns and a curved entablature with triglyphs, which continues round the room. Acanthus ceiling rose, panelled shutters, reveals and soffits, panelled doors. Elliptical arch to the fine lateral dogleg stair, with wreathed, veneered rail and fluted banisters. HISTORICAL NOTE: built by Joseph Harford as Stapleton Grove. The home of Raja Rammohun Roy Bahadoor, the noted Hindu reformer, now buried at Arno's Vale Cemetery, Bath Road, Brislington (qv). (Harford A: Annals of the Harford Family: London: 1909-). Now Private Housing

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