The Pump House is an historic

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

Hotwells Hotwells is a district of the English port city of Bristol. It is located to the south of and below the high ground of Clifton, and directly to the north of the Floating Harbour. The southern entrance to the Avon Gorge, which connects the docks ...

Bristol Harbour Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out per ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Building

Originally known as the ''Cumberland Basin Hydraulic Engine House'', the Pump House was constructed around 1870 by Thomas Howard to house a

hydraulic pump Hydraulic pumps are used in hydraulic drive systems and can be hydrostatic or hydrodynamic. A hydraulic pump is a mechanical source of power that converts mechanical power into hydraulic energy ( hydrostatic energy i.e. flow, pressure). It generat ...

that powered bridges and

lock gate A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water lev ...

s around the harbour. It was replaced by the current Hydraulic engine house at Underfall Yard in 1888. and is now a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

and restaurant. It is built of Pennant rubble bricks, with

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

dressings and a roof made from pantiles. The main building is one storey high, 4 windows across. In addition, there is a two-story

accumulator tower A hydraulic accumulator is a pressure storage reservoir in which an incompressible hydraulic fluid is held under pressure that is applied by an external source of mechanical energy. The external source can be an engine, a spring, a raised weight, ...

to the left hand side of the building. The dressings include pronounced quoins, jambs and voussoirs. The entrance is a wide elliptical-arch, which would have been large enough for carriages, and there is a large semicircular-arched window to the left of the entrance. The right-hand section of the building is set back slightly and has a small semicircular-arched doorway with a narrow window above. The accumulator tower has its own semicircular-arched doorway, and narrow window above. At the top of the tower, there is a wrought-iron weather vane, and on the left side there is a large arrowslit. The building was designated a grade II listed building on 18 February 1972.

Restaurant

The building was converted into a pub, and was taken over by the current chef, Toby Gritten, on 11 July 2007. Around this time, the building had an extensive refurbishment, including an internal

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...

, where the restaurant is located, a bar on the ground floor and a terrace outside. Gritten won the Best Chef award at the Bristol Good Food Awards in 2013.

References

External links

The Pump House
{{Culture in Bristol Infrastructure completed in 1870 Bristol Harbourside Grade II listed pubs in Bristol Pubs in Gloucestershire