Clifton Hill House

Clifton Hill House is a Grade I

Original rococo plasterwork, by Joseph Thomas, survives in a number of interior rooms.^[3] The Symonds Music Room, which adjoins the Drawing Room, was constructed in the 1850s and extends beyond the left point of the south faćade. The vantage point of the house offered a view of the Avon, of the city of Bristol, and of the Bath hills.

The house was later home to the nineteenth century 'man-of-letters', John Addington Symonds,^[4] whose father had bought the house in 1851.

In 1907 May Staveley a lecturer in the History Department of the University of Bristol, started lobbying for need to provide a hall for her students. With support from the Fry family, the Symonds family and private subscriptions, the house was bought for £5000 in 1909. Following some alterations and furnishing, the hall accepted its first residents on 30 September.^[5] Clifton Hill House was the first hall of residence for women in south-west England.^[4]

In 1911, the university took over the running of the house^[4] and they bought the adjacent Callandar House, which dates from the late 18th century and is itself Grade II listed.^[6] Callandar House was extended in the 1920s thanks to the Wills family (regular benefactors to the university) and, along with Old Clifton, continued to house only female residents. Additional land was acquired and in the early 1960s Fry Wing was constructed on 5 floors ("A" to "E" floors) with South Wing following some 10 years later with its 4 floors ("D" to "G" floors). Clifton Hill House now houses approximately 230 students in total, of all genders. There is a Junior Common Room with a stage and bar.

The Hall has been used by the BBC as a film location for The House of Eliott and for episodes of Casualty.^[7]

References