Architectural Styles in Bristol
Bristol is an independent and creative city with a rich history of anti-establishment, alternative lifestyle and concentration of creatives, artists and filmmakers. The city, dubbed 'The Mild Mild West', reflects this heritage with its contrast of architectural styles and quirkiness.
Much of the city centre was bombed during World War II and as such has a collection of modernist town planning alongside the historic surviving areas, such as the Christmas Steps arts quarter. A thriving hub of charming cobbled streets and buildings dating back to the 1600s.
In contrast, Clifton Cathedral is a 1970s Modernist building by the Percy Thomas Partnership. If you are a fan of Modern architecture or not, it must be appreciated as a fine example of Brutalist architecture.
Possibly the most well-known part of Bristol is Clifton Village which has an abundance of Georgian architecture alongside the iconic pastel rainbow rows of Georgian terraces that overlook the Clifton suspension bridge. Royal York Crescent is a fine example of Georgian terraces with a feel of neighbouring Bath.
St Werburghs has rows of Georgian and Victorian terraces and has evolved into a self-build, eco-housing community.
Stokes Croft is the concentration of creativity and independent spirit, where many artists live and graffiti is abundant. This is where Banksy began his career painting murals on buildings. Bedminster is the home for the Upfest graffiti festival where street artists work and guided tours showcase the best of the city's murals.
Surrounding all the eclectic excitement and individuality can be found the standard collection of 1930s, 1960s and millennium new build houses that are the standard housing stock of Britain.
Georgian Houses
Key features of Georgian houses include high ceilings that create large windows downstairs with smaller windows on the upper floors. Georgian windows are double-hung sash windows featuring nine or twelve panes of glass and six panes on the upper floors. Front doors are usually a six-panel door with fanlight windows above and sometimes framed with columns.
For Georgian properties, we recommend:
Windows: Wooden sash windows with traditional Georgian bars, in white.
Door: A wood-effect composite front door or a wooden front door with traditional furniture, in dark colours such as black, dark blue or red.
Victorian Terraces
The signature of the Victorian terrace is the bay window on the downstairs living room. Originally, these featured wooden sash windows but most have not survived due to poor maintenance and were replaced with uPVC casement windows. To renovate the period property back to its original best condition, sash windows can be reinstalled. For energy efficiency, casement windows do offer superior heat retention.
Front doors are timber panel doors with glazed upper panels featuring stained glass. Again, these are prized original details to find still in a property today.
For Victorian properties, we recommend:
Windows: woodgrain effect uPVC Sash windows, or wooden sash windows, in white.
Doors: Composite panel door with glazed upper panels and stained glass, in strong colours such as red, royal blue or grass green.
1930s and 1960s semi-detached house
The ubiquitous semi-detached house makes up a large proportion of the housing stock in British suburbs. The 1930s semi has half brick and half render or pebble dash walls and the 1960s house has walls of light brown, grey or buff-coloured brick half-clad with weatherboards or concrete hanging tiles.
The earlier 1930s semis usually have faceted bay windows sometimes featuring leaded glass. In the 60s, windows became bigger in size with large casement picture windows, often in aluminium frames.
For semi-detached properties, we recommend:
Windows: Casement windows, or aluminium windows and leaded glass or internal Georgian bars with frames in white, grey or black.
Doors: Composite panel door with glazed panels and decorative glass. Early 1930s properties suit traditional colours such as white, black, brown and blue, or a natural varnished timber finish. 1960s houses suit brighter colours for doors.
90/00s New Build
Houses built between 1990 and today represent the new build that has become the most prolific style of housing in the UK taking over from the 30s and 60s house style.
Usually, an economical footprint, built from either light brown or red brick featuring a minimal front and back garden with a drive and integrated garage too small to house most modern cars. The new builds are driven by energy efficiency and have small windows and early designs sometimes have Georgian bars for decoration.
This is a versatile style of housing that has double or triple glazing in either white or popular anthracite grey frames. Front doors are uPVC or composite with a small glazed panel.
For 90/00s New Build properties, we recommend:
Windows: uPVC casement windows or tilt and turn windows in grey or white.
Doors: Composite door with a glazed panel in grey to match the windows or a range of bright colours to suit the brickwork.
