History of Henbury

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HENBURY LODGE

Henbury Lodge Hotel almost certainly started life as two cottages around the year 1600. It remained as such until 1712 when it appears to have been combined into one dwelling.

A Kips drawing of the area dated 1730 shows a large two-story house of Tudor style.

During the next few decades the building underwent some interesting changes and the City archivist dated the front conversion to a Palladian Georgian mansion of three storey’s around 1760. In or around 1800 the staircase and dining room were added and the stable block and ‘model laundry’ around 1808.

The original copper boiler from the laundry, made in 1808 by Bush of Bristol, is now in the Bristol museum and several fixtures and fittings from the old Kitchen at Henbury are to be found in Blaise Museum, only a stroll from the hotel. Henbury Lodge, over the years, has been occupied and visited by some notable personages but none more so than Edmund Burke (1729-1797) the British statesman who represented Bristol as a Member of Parliament from which he enjoyed the vista across the open fields (alas now long gone). There is a small plaque to identify what is believed to be the window.

The House has always been well loved by past occupants and it is somehow fitting that it should continue its role of hospitality as a small and friendly Hotel. The house has been a focal point of the borough of Henbury since the year 1600 and we feel sure that Henbury Lodge Hotel as it is now will have a similarly valuable role to play within Bristol for many years to come.