}
Architectural features
Although many of Bristol's earlier buildings do not survive individual elements of them have been collected over the years.
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery began its collection of architecture in the 1880s, and it has been added to at various periods in the Museum's history. The years between 1890 and 1914 were particularly rich in collecting terms; redevelopment of several areas of the city led to the destruction of large numbers of medieval and later buildings, coinciding with a period when two key figures were active in the city Museum - Alderman J. Fuller Eberle and John Pritchard.
Both men were instrumental in saving important buildings - John Pritchard personally interviewed and lobbied every single member of the City Council during the fight between1905-8 to prevent the destruction of the Dutch House (a fine half-timbered house of 1676 later destroyed in the Bristol blitz). In 1920 Pritchard was a key figure in the campaign to save Red Lodge, a high-status late Elizabethean house now administered and open to the public as part of Bristol Museums Service. Where buildings could not be saved, both Pritchard and Eberle consistently salvaged fragments such as chimneypieces, carved wood and stonework such as decorative brackets and finials, plasterwork or panelling.
Further acquisitions have strengthened the collection, principally resulting from the effects of wartime bombing, and from the regeneration of the old city centre.
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery began its collection of architecture in the 1880s, and it has been added to at various periods in the Museum's history. The years between 1890 and 1914 were particularly rich in collecting terms; redevelopment of several areas of the city led to the destruction of large numbers of medieval and later buildings, coinciding with a period when two key figures were active in the city Museum - Alderman J. Fuller Eberle and John Pritchard.
Both men were instrumental in saving important buildings - John Pritchard personally interviewed and lobbied every single member of the City Council during the fight between1905-8 to prevent the destruction of the Dutch House (a fine half-timbered house of 1676 later destroyed in the Bristol blitz). In 1920 Pritchard was a key figure in the campaign to save Red Lodge, a high-status late Elizabethean house now administered and open to the public as part of Bristol Museums Service. Where buildings could not be saved, both Pritchard and Eberle consistently salvaged fragments such as chimneypieces, carved wood and stonework such as decorative brackets and finials, plasterwork or panelling.
Further acquisitions have strengthened the collection, principally resulting from the effects of wartime bombing, and from the regeneration of the old city centre.