| Summary : Arnos Court, now the Arnos Manor Hotel, was built in 1760 as the house of Bristol copper smelter William Reeve. The estate was sold off in 1774 and some of the land now makes part of Arnos Vale Cemetery. In 1850-51 the house was extended when a convent was built at the rear. The former Arnos Court is built of Bath stone and has a double-depth plan. It is a Classically-derived house with Gothick detail. It is of three storeys and has a seven-window front. The central entrance porch has a Gibbs surround and pediment, with a pointed arch above the doorway and a crenellated parapet. To either side are full canted bays, with plat bands and a jutting crenellated parapet. The ground floor has 6/6 sash windows with three-part segmental heads. The first floor has similar windows set within an architrave and ogee arch with trefoil moulding above. The smaller second floor sashes have interlacing tops.The former convent, now part of the hotel, was built for the Sisterhood of the Asylum of the Good Shepherd. It is of three storeys and attic, and constructed of Pennant rubble with Bath stone dressings and a slate roof. It is in Italianate style with a cloister and chapel backing onto the rear of Arnos Court. The entrance to the cloister is on the north side and was originally two storeys. It is built of ashlar and rubble stripes and has a wide, round-arched doorway. Inside the cloister is open on two sides. The exterior of the chapel has three tall pointed windows and an attached column with carved capital and plinth. The interior of the chapel, now a snooker room, has marble columns at the east end with Corinthian capitals and round arches; the ceiling is divided into large panels by moulded beams. A later addition in plainer style to the west extends along the side, and has a front to the west of the hotel. |
More information : (ST 61127153) Arno's Court Hotel (NAT) (1)
Arno's Court Hotel was originally named Mount Pleasant (2), being built c1760 for William Reeve, a quaker copper smelter. The new house was intended only to house the reception and bedrooms, the domestic offices being in an older block, now demolished. The existing three storey building is of Bath stone ashlar, rusticated on the ground floor with dressed freestone above. Grade 2*.
(See also Arno's Castle, ST 67 SW, 31 and the gateway, ST 67 SW, 29). (2-3)
Parkside Hotel (Formerly Listed as: BATH ROAD Arno's Court Hotel) GV II* House, formerly a convent, now hotel. 1760. Extended c1850. Possibly by James Bridges, for the Quaker and copper smelter William Reeve. Bath stone; roof not visible. Double-depth plan. Classically-derived house with applied Gothick detail. 3 storeys; 7-window range. 2 full-height canted bays, separated by the entrance; rusticated ground floor, plat bands, successively narrower, at each floor and cornice level; jutting crenellated parapet has corner blocks with sunken quatrefoils. The entrance porch has a Gibbs surround with frosted rustication and pediment containing a rocaille cartouche, with a lancet arch inside and crenellated parapet above, leading to side niches and a semicircular doorway; round-headed niches with ogee mouldings above to each side; the manner in which the porch meets the rest of the house suggests it is a later addition. Ground-floor windows are 6/6 sashes set back, with 3-part segmented heads; similar sashes to first floor have an architrave and ogee with trefoil moulding above, terminating above the string in a finial; similar ogee over middle window, but forming a cinquefoil over a semicircular opening flanked by pilasters; smaller, 3/3 second-floor sashes; all have interlacing tops. Left-hand elevation has single range of blind windows to match the front. Fenestration returns down right elevation for 7-window range, some blanked-off. INTERIOR: originally had some of Thomas Stocking's finest Rococo plasterwork, of which remains the fine trellised roses and birds on the former Drawing Room ceiling, which also has fielded shutters and moulded panels on the walls, an oval centrepiece to stairwell ceiling, and cornices in entrance hall. The staircase has been altered to a C19 imperial stair, which fits in the original apsidal well. Extended and converted to a convent c1850. Associated with the Bath House, linked by a tunnel beneath the Bath Road but removed to Portmeirion in 1957, Triumphal Arch (qv) and Black Castle (qv). (4)
In the late-C18 the land which was to be developed as Arnos Vale Cemetery probably formed part of the estate associated with Arnos Court, a mansion built by William Reeves, a Bristol copper merchant c 1760-5 (Pevsner 1958; Pearson Assocs 1999). Reeves became bankrupt in 1774 and his estate was divided and sold. (5) |