Doors Open Day at the University of

Saturday 11 September 2010

A brief guide to the buildings open between 10 am and 4 pm • • Royal Fort House • The School of Chemistry • bristol.ac.uk/doorsopenday Welcome Wills Memorial Building Queens Road, BS8 1RJ

The is Guided tours Public Engagement • There will be free tours to the pleased to participate once Connecting the University top of the Tower * more in Bristol Doors Open Day and the City • Visit the reception desk on the first 2010. We hope you enjoy floor to reserve a place Public engagement describes the visiting our buildings in this year’s • Tour times: 10.15 am, 10.35 am, many ways in which the University of programme: the Wills Memorial 10.55 am, 11.15 am, 11.35 am, 11.55 am, Bristol’s staff and students interact 12.15 pm, 12.35 pm, 13.15 pm, Building, Royal Fort House, the with the public. Events such as 13.35 pm, 13.55 pm, 14.15 pm, School of Chemistry and Clifton Doors Open Day, public lectures and 14.35 pm, 14.55 pm, 15.15 pm. discussions, cultural celebrations, Hill House. There will also be a • The Entrance Hall, Great Hall and research festivals and lifelong chance to find out about our Reception Room, Council Chamber learning are just some of the ways latest research and talk to and Library will all be open for free in which the public can connect Wills Memorial Building public viewing. researchers at an exhibition of with the University. University an impressive main building earth science research in the on a conspicuous site. The final bill came The Centre for Public Engagement Journeys into research Wills Memorial Building and a to £500,000. Research exhibition from the film screening/photographic supports these interactions, organising Department of Earth Sciences, many events and activities that The building exhibition in Royal Fort House. encourage conversations between 10 am to 4 pm The building was designed in 1912 by the University and the public. This booklet gives you: An exhibition of earth science research George Oatley (1863-1950) who was knighted for his work. It was constructed • Times of free tours taking place at For further information, contact: will take place in the Reception by the builders Henry Willcock & Co of the four venues open today Centre for Public Engagement Room. Come along and talk to our Wolverhampton and was one of the last • Short histories of the buildings University of Bristol researchers, try out the hands-on buildings in this country to be built using • Notes on what to look out for while Senate House activities and learn about our work. wooden scaffolding. The First World War you are visiting. Tyndall Avenue held up the construction of the building Bristol, BS8 1TH A short history and it had to wait until 9 June 1925 when If you require additional support at any of T +44 (0)117 331 8313 George and Henry Wills of the Wills King George V opened it. The building is these events, such as wheelchair access E [email protected] Tobacco Company, who wanted to create now Grade II* Listed. or sign language interpretation, please W bristol.ac.uk/public-engagement a lasting memorial to their father, Henry contact Diane Thorne; tel: +44 (0)117 331 Overton Wills III, paid for the Wills Although to most Bristolians, the Wills 8318, email: [email protected], Download extra copies of Memorial Building. His pledge of £100,000 Memorial Building is the University, today at the earliest opportunity. this booklet from our website: in 1908 made the foundation of the it only houses part of it: the Department of bristol.ac.uk/doorsopenday University possible the following year. Earth Sciences and the School of Law, FREE ADMISSION The brothers also wanted to give the new together with their libraries.

* Health and safety Unfortunately, children under 8 are not allowed to go up the Tower. There are more than 200 steps and some enclosed spaces. When a tour coincides with Great George chiming the hour, disposable earplugs will be provided. Wills Memorial Building Queens Road, BS8 1RJ

Restoration The Tower WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Council Chamber – first floor The Tower has recently been subject The Tower, in the Gothic Perpendicular This room was originally used for to a £750,000 restoration, the main style, is one of Bristol’s most prominent Entrance Hall – ground floor meetings of the University’s Council. It is contractors for which were W. R. Bedford, landmarks and is 215 feet (or 65.5 metres) This is one of the most impressive rooms semi-polygonal in shape, with an Stonemasons. This included cleaning the high. in the building and is 75 feet (or 23 impressive glass ceiling above a stone stonework, repainting the shields on the metres) high. Notice the massive double vault. On the longest wall are the shields exterior and installing discreet, energy- Great George staircases to the first floor and Gothic fan of benefactors of the University. efficient floodlights to illuminate it at night. The nine-and-a-half-ton bell at the top of vaulting on the ceiling. In the middle of the the Tower is known as ‘Great George’ vaulting is a decorative oak cover over Library – first floor Flooks Scaffolding Co erected the after the architect, Sir George Oatley, King the aperture where the bell, ‘Great George’, A bust of the architect of the building, scaffolding for this project. It consisted George V and George Wills. Great George was hoisted into the belfry. Sir George Oatley, can be found near the of a network of 9,000 steel tubes, which is the sixth heaviest bell in Britain and the entrance to the library. The oldest part of weighed a total of 300 tons and which, if third largest bell that can be swung by The original Founder’s Window lost its glass the library is 100 feet (or 30.5 metres) long laid end to end, would run for 56 kilometres, rope and wheel in the country. The bell’s in the Second World War and the existing and has a beautiful 16th-century style or all the way to Taunton. There were also note is E-flat and it was the deepest- window is a new design showing the shields plaster ceiling. 30 tons of clips and fittings, 40 tons of toned in the UK when it was made. It is of all the early supporters of the University. beams to create bridges and 90 tons of now usually struck externally between Centenary garden scaffold boards equivalent to 50 lorry- 7 am and 11 pm. Reception Room – first floor Outside the building is the Centenary loads of materials, all handled and The Reception Room is 64 feet (or 19.5 garden, a public space designed by erected by a team of just seven men. metres) long, with a Minstrels’ Gallery at Anne de Verteuil in celebration of the one end and an oriel window at the other. University’s centenary in 2009. It has a beautiful plasterwork ceiling and oak panelling on the walls. On each oak pilaster are the arms of University tributary Journeys into Research ALISON NEEDLER RICHARD EDWARDS counties and cities. The portraits are of Research exhibition, 10 am to 4 pm distinguished officers of the University, Reception Room, Wills Memorial including George and Henry Wills and Building Sir Winston Churchill, Chancellor of the University from 1929 to 1965. Explore the latest research from the Department of Earth Sciences. Great Hall – first floor The exhibition presents work ranging The magnificent 100-foot (or 30.5 metres) from understanding volcanoes and long Great Hall can seat 1,000 people for continent formation to piecing graduation ceremonies (February and July) together the lives of dinosaurs. and other important occasions. There is Meet the researchers who work in a beautiful hammer-beam roof in English this impressive building and find oak and linen-fold panelling on the walls, out about the discoveries made all of which had to be restored after the within these walls. Recent restoration of the Tower Entrance Hall building was bombed in 1940. Royal Fort House off Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1UJ

A short history The building WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Thomas Tyndall, who built Royal Fort James Bridges began work on Royal Fort House on the site of the old Royalist Fort, House by preparing a wooden model that Entrance Hall leased the land from Bristol Corporation in can still be seen in the House today. In the • On the walls, four decorative brackets 1737, and for some years continued to design and building of the House, Bridges whose original purpose was to carry buy up the leases of more of the collaborated with Thomas Paty* who did lamps (note their representation of the surrounding land. The family’s wealth had both the stone carving and rococo four seasons) been acquired over many years through woodcarving, and with Thomas Stocking** • The 18th-century brass floor heating trade with Africa and the West Indies. The who did the decorative rococo plaster inlets can still be seen. architect, James Bridges, who had come work. The mason who was responsible for from the American Colonies and set up the stonework is thought to be Robert The Staircase Hall his premises on St Michael’s Hill, was Gray who had done other work for Bridges. • Thomas Stocking’s rococo stucco commissioned by Thomas Tyndall to Of Bridges’ elevations for Royal Fort work on the walls prepare designs for a new house at Royal House, Ison*** writes: “The elevations are • The Edwardian chandelier, hanging Fort. The building was eventually finished typical Georgian Classical designs of an over the staircase Royal Fort House in approximately 1761. Bridges is known effective but slightly commonplace • The floor surface, made up of two as the designer of the original Bristol character…” but Ison also suggests that coloured slate and stone. Guided tours Bridge. they are redeemed by the high quality of • There will be free guided tours at 10 am, the interiors of the ground floor rooms, 11 am, 12 noon, 1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm Thomas Tyndall lived at Royal Fort House unrivalled in the South West. • Places are limited and are on a first- for about 30 years until his death in 1790 come, first-served basis. when Thomas Tyndall II inherited the building. Unfortunately the latter was Journeys into research unable to prevent the sale, in 1791, of Mathematical ethnographies many of the surrounding acres to a Film screening and syndicate, though the land reverted to the photographic exhibition Tyndalls in 1798. Humphrey Repton, who was employed to remake the park around Get a different perspective of the house, removed all traces of the University mathematicians and syndicate’s activities. what motivates them with this film screening and photographic From 1798 until 1916, the Tyndalls lived exhibition, taking place in the at Royal Fort House. In 1916 the house Dining Room and the Yellow Room. and surrounding land were sold to the University.

The Entrance Hall The Staircase

* Paty worked in Bristol as an architect and carver, designing many Clifton houses. **Stocking was the City’s best-known plaster worker with an international reputation. *** Ison, Walter, The Georgian Buildings of Bristol (1978). The School of Chemistry Cantock’s Close, BS8 1TS

The Dining Room (facing the Guided tours front entrance door) Guided tours will run approximately every LIZ EVE/FOTOHAUS • Stocking’s fine ceiling (note half hour from 12 pm, with the last tour his handling of the cornice) leaving at 3.30 pm. Please go to the main • Paty’s (probably) Quebec pine entrance from where a porter will direct carving on the walls you to the tour meeting point. CHRYSTAL CHERNIWCHAN 2009 CHRYSTAL • Note the vigorous design of the door surround Two parts of the School of Chemistry are • The small painting in the carving of open to visitors as part of Bristol Doors the door surround is attributed to Open Day: the Synthetic Chemistry Mathematical ethnographies Michael Edkins. Building and the recently refurbished Film screening and undergraduate teaching laboratories on photographic exhibition the top floors of West Block of the original Dining Room and Yellow Room, The Withdrawing Room Chemistry Building. The tours will give Royal Fort House, 10 am to 4 pm • Ceiling by Stocking; the little pineapple visitors the opportunity to find out more leaves in the ceiling boss are made about the buildings themselves and learn What is research in mathematics? of lead about the teaching and research that goes Is it just bigger and more complicated • The carved heads on either side of the on within them. Visitors will also be able to sums? Find out with a collection fireplace are probably those of Thomas see some of the latest developments in of short films made by Chrystal Tyndall and his wife resources for teaching, such as the Cherniwchan, Azita Ghassemi and • Over the fireplace is a piece of 18th- interactive on-line Dynamic Laboratory Professor Jon Keating from the century wallpaper that was unearthed Manual, intended to help students with Department of Mathematics. Funded some time ago practical work. by a grant from the University of The Synthetic Chemistry Building • The sills of the three windows on the Bristol Alumni Fund, the films are part west side appear to have been lowered, A short history of the Mathematical Ethnographies South and East blocks housing teaching and this change is reflected in the The School of Chemistry at the University project. The focus is not on and research laboratories as well as decoration of the adjoining dado rails. of Bristol is one of the UK’s largest and mathematics, but on the people lecture theatres and offices, with link most prestigious chemistry departments. who create and teach it; the blocks and bridges in between. When It has an excellent reputation for the mathematicians themselves. constructed, the building was only quality of both its teaching and its intended to have a lifespan of about 50 research. It moved to its present site in This collection of films will be years. It has, however, developed the early 1960s from the building that now showing all day, along with a considerably since that time. A new houses the School of Biological Sciences photographic exhibition of portraits Synthetic Chemistry Building was added a on Woodland Road. of the people exploring new few years ago and much of the original territories in mathematics. concrete structure has been refaced and The building internally refurbished. A new room has As originally designed, the Chemistry also been added recently, linking the building consisted of separate West, South and West blocks. The School of Chemistry Cantock’s Close, BS8 1TS

The Synthetic Chemistry Building researchers. Fresh air is sucked in at The School of Chemistry’s new £17 million ground-floor level and ducts between the Synthetic Chemistry Building was officially laboratories then supply clean air. This is opened in 1999 by Sir Richard Sykes, extracted via the fume hoods to roof level, then chairman of the pharmaceutical where it is filtered and diluted before giant, GlaxoSmithKline, and now rector of being discharged at high velocity from a Imperial College, London. The project to series of striking chimneys. upgrade the research facilities began in

1996 and involved an unusual degree of The Synthetic Chemistry Building has a ChemLabS state-of-the-art teaching laboratories collaboration between the team of prominent position overlooking the city architects from Percy Thomas Partnership, and researchers enjoy some of the best One of the centrepieces of the Bristol students access to the latest facilities engineers Ove Arup & Partners and Bristol views in Bristol. The architects used local ChemLabS project has been the to develop the practical skills necessary chemists. The design is based on the best materials common to the rest of the refurbishment of the School of for a career in chemistry. The installation features of state-of-the-art laboratories in University of Bristol precinct; a plinth of Chemistry’s undergraduate practical of 62 new fume hoods meant that an extra industrial pharmaceutical companies. Brandon stone with yellow and brown laboratories in the West Block of the floor on the top of West Block was Sixteen laboratory modules, each with a brickwork above and Bath stone copings. original Chemistry Building. The building needed to house the air-extraction and clean area for writing up results, are The interesting combination of design with programme is one of the biggest ever replacement plant. At the same time, all arranged on four floors. A total of 198 function led to the building being selected undertaken by the University of Bristol. the windows in West Block were replaced. fume hood workstations provide an by the Bristol Evening Post as one of the The cost of the entire project amounts to In addition, the building was reclad in red efficient, safe and healthy environment best seven modern buildings in the city. over £20 million, supported through and buff rain screen tiles to match the for more than 200 researchers. investment by HEFCE and the University recently refurbished South and East West Block of Bristol. Blocks. As part of the redevelopment, the Outside the research laboratories, a two- The University of Bristol is home to Bristol lecture theatre projecting from the West corridor system separates the laboratories ChemLabS, the country’s only Centre for The construction project itself started in Block of the building has also been from staff offices. On one side of the Excellence in the Teaching and Learning 2005. It was managed by Capita refinished in grey steel cladding. building the service corridor allows access of Chemistry. The Centre is one of 74 Symonds, alongside architects Kendall between laboratories and to the chemical projects spread across a wide range of Kingscott and engineers Silcock Dawson. The refurbishment has not only benefited services. The second, clean corridor gives subjects and disciplines that were Building work started at the end of undergraduate students studying at the access to the laboratory write-up areas, established in 2005 by the Higher December 2005, led by Cowlin University of Bristol. Through its extensive offices and meeting rooms. Education Funding Council for England Construction in conjunction with a number programme of outreach and public (HEFCE) to promote innovation in teaching of subcontractors. The old wooden engagement activities, the School of It is an energy efficient and and learning in higher education. The aim benches of the original teaching Chemistry makes its laboratories available environmentally friendly building. There is of Bristol ChemLabS is to create a laboratories were completely stripped out for use by secondary schools and a recirculating cooled water system to national resource to help raise standards and replaced by state-of-the-art facilities colleges from Bristol and further afield. minimise water use and disposal, and a in the teaching and learning of practical that are similar to those found in a For example, around 30,000 children per complete air change occurs in the chemistry and to engage and enthuse commercial research environment. The year have interacted with the University laboratory modules once per minute — students of all ages. laboratories have also been equipped to as a result of Bristol ChemLabS. crucial to the health and safety of the the highest possible standard, giving Clifton Hill House Lower Clifton Hill, BS8 1BX

Guided tours In 1851, Clifton Hill House was bought by was such that it broke one fine crystal 1920s, thanks to the generosity of the There are no guided tours but staff will be Dr John Addington Symonds, a well- glass. Other guest included John Wills family, enabling the creation of a new on hand throughout the day to answer known Bristol physician who was famous Masefield, the Poet Laureate and Dame dining room on the site of the Stables. questions about the building. not only for his medical proficiency but Clara Butt, the Bristol-born contralto. This is now known as the Wills Reception also for his gift at entertaining the literary Room. A short history and artistic élite of his time. The house When Dr Symonds died in 1871, the Clifton Hill House was built between 1746 was filled with many distinguished and house passed to his son, John Addington In 1909, Clifton Hill House was opened as and 1750 as an imposing semi-rural talented people like Lord Lansdowne, Symonds, the poet, historian, literary and a ‘Women’s Hostel’, accommodating 15 mansion of Palladian inspiration for Paul Jowett, Percival (Clifton College’s first art critic. Though his work is little read young ladies. It is now a popular mixed Fisher, a highly successful and wealthy Headmaster) and Jenny Lind, the today, he was a leading participant in the hall of residence, housing a lively merchant and ship-owner. He was celebrated Victorian singer known as the literary culture of his time, an early community of some 230 students from the described by his contemporaries as a Swedish Nightingale. She sang several enthusiast of Whitman and a friend of University of Bristol. It is also well known benevolent man and a great benefactor times at the Victoria Rooms and in 1862, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry James for hosting conferences, civil weddings for the poor of the community. He was stayed at Clifton Hill House when she and Edward Lear. The Owl and the and special events in the restored rooms. most prominent in the foundation of the sang in what is now the Symonds Music Pussy Cat was written for Symonds’s Room. The pitch of her exceptional voice eldest daughter, Janet. Bristol Infirmary in 1735. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR The building Clifton Hill House Reception rooms and main staircase At the height of his wealth, Paul Fisher There are some remarkable rococo ceiling employed Isaac Ware, the Palladian carvings by local craftsman Joseph architect and designer of national renown Thomas in the reception rooms and the and protégé of Lord Burlington. Most of main staircase – the first cantilever stone

SARAH WHITTINGHAM Ware’s works were for private clients. staircase in Bristol. The design of Clifton His most famous surviving building is Hill House appears in Isaac Ware’s book Wrotham Park, the plans of which appear A Complete Body of Architecture of 1756. in Soldi’s portrait of Ware and his daughter — a copy of which now hangs in The garden the Fisher Drawing Room at Clifton Hill House. Fisher chose Clifton for the The main garden at Clifton Hill House location of his mansion, following the follows a traditional patte d’oie design. Its growing idea of the time that the suburbs layout has not changed much since the were preferable to the bustling city. 18th century and it is home to several rare tulip trees, the oldest of which was Callander House, an eighteenth-century planted for Paul Fisher over 250 years house next door, was bought for £4,000 ago. by the University in 1911, also from the Symonds family. It was extended in the Forthcoming events and feedback Map

Forthcoming events

Twilight talks 21 September 2010 Stem cells, cartilage and how to save a life Professor Anthony Hollander, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 6 pm, WATERSHED 13 October 2010 German unification: 20 years on Dr Debbie Pinter and colleagues, Department of German 6 pm, VENUE TO BE CONFIRMED 21 October 2010 Exploring the Theatre Collection Jo Elsworth, Department of Drama 6 pm, THEATRE COLLECTION 2 27 October 2010 Hidden Glory: Dorothy Hodgkin in her own words 7 pm, WICKHAM THEATRE 1 9 November 2010 Armistice Day 3 Lois Bibbings, School of Law 6 pm, ARMADA HOUSE 11 November 2010 Children of the 90s 6 pm, ARMADA HOUSE 29 November 2010 Professor Mark Horton, Department of Archaeology 4 and Anthropology 6 pm, BRISTOL’S CITY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

Twilight talks are free but booking is required in advance. bristol.ac.uk/twilight-talks

Did you enjoy Doors Open Day 2010? through our website – bristol.ac.uk/ Was there enough information? public-engagement/feedback.html; Key Could you locate the buildings easily? by leaving a comment on our blog – 1 Wills Memorial Building How could we improve things for http://centreforpublicengagement. 2 Royal Fort House next year? blogspot.com; or following us on Twitter – 3 School of Chemistry twitter.com/cpe_bristol. Or simply 4 Clifton Hill House We value your feedback and would like telephone us: +44 (0) 117 331 8318. to hear what you think. You can contact us by email: [email protected]; We’d love to hear from you. Centre for Public Engagement University of Bristol Senate House Tyndall Avenue Bristol BS8 1TH

T +44 (0)117 331 8313 E [email protected] W bristol.ac.uk/public-engagement bristol.ac.uk