Queen Square, Bristol

Queen Square is a 2.4ha garden square in the centre of Bristol, England. It was originally a fashionable residential address, but now most of the buildings are in office use.The site on which the Square was built lay outside Bristol's city walls and was known as the Town Marsh. The Square was planned in 1699 and building finished in 1727. It was named in honour of Queen Anne. The north side and much of the west were destroyed in the Bristol Riots of 1831 and rebuilt. Many of the buildings now have listed building status.In 1937 the Inner Circuit Road was driven diagonally across the Square but in 2000 it was removed and the open space restored.StatueIn the centre of the Square is an idealised equestrian statue of William III by John Michael Rysbrack, cast in 1733 and erected in 1736 to signify the city's loyalty. The brass statue is on a Portland ashlar pedestal with a moulded plinth and cornice and is a grade I listed building.ArchitectureThe north side contains the Custom House by Sydney Smirke,, and a terrace by Henry Rumley, which are now offices, .The east side contains some 20th-century buildings and the Port Authority Office by William Venn Gough. The Sailors Refuge which makes up nos 27–29 dates from 1709–11 and is II* listed.