Wills Memorial Building

The Wills Memorial Building stands near the top of Park Street on Queens Road in Bristol. It is a neo-Gothic tower designed by Sir George Oatley and built as a memorial to Henry Overton Wills III. The building was begun in 1915 and opened in 1925 after delays caused by the First World War. It is now the seventh-tallest structure in Bristol at 215 feet and houses the School of Law and the Department of Earth Sciences. The Great Hall inside is used for degree ceremonies and examinations. Nikolaus Pevsner called it a tour de force in Gothic Revival, and English Heritage has listed it as Grade II*. The building was funded by the Wills family fortune from tobacco and honours their father, a benefactor of the university. Sir George Oatley produced a design in the Perpendicular Gothic style to evoke Oxford and Cambridge. Construction halted in 1916 and resumed in 1919, costing £501,566. The tower’s octagonal belfry holds Great George, a nine-and-a-half-ton bell rung on special occasions. Oatley received a knighthood for his work. Visitors find the Wills Tower clad in Bath and Clipsham stone with heraldic shields and a lantern at the top. Inside are the Great Hall with its hammerbeam roof, a general library, reception room and council chamber. There are fifty further rooms including seminar spaces and lecture theatres. The entrance hall has two ceremonial staircases leading to the tower. The building also serves as a conference venue. Cleaning in 2006 revealed a hidden engraving reading IO TRIVMPHE, paying tribute to Sir Isambard Owen.