Tags
Acker Bilk, architecture, Bristol, Bristol Byzantine, Jazz, Music, rock, The Granary Club, The Old Granary Bristol, Victorian., Welsh Back Bristol
According to Looking at Buildings. org, this Grade II listed building is an example of Bristol Byzantine architecture, a style I’ve never heard of before, which is characterised by, amongst other things, “upper floors unified through either horizontal or vertical grouping of window openings“.
As well as being of architectural interest, it gained a place in music history, in its second life as The Granary Club. Between 1968 and 1988 it hosted Motorhead, Iron Maidan, Dire Straits, Status Quo, Def Leppard and many more big names [if you follow the link to the club’s tribute page you can see the full list of bands].
Despite the buildings rock credentials, it was initial opened, according to a certain on-line encyclopaedia, as a Jazz club by Ted Cowell, with the help of bowler hat wearing, clarinettist, Acker Bilk MBE.
I had no idea I was going to uncover any of those facts when I started to look into the history of this building; I love it when that happens.