The Wills Memorial Building (also known as the Wills Memorial Tower or simply the Wills Tower) is a Neo Gothic building designed by Sir George Oatley and built as a memorial to Henry Overton Wills III. Begun in 1915 and not opened until 1925, it is considered one of the last great Gothic buildings to be built in England.
Situated near the top of Park Street on Queens Road in Bristol, United Kingdom, it is a landmark building of the University of Bristol that currently houses the School of Law and the Department of Earth Sciences, as well as the Law and Earth Sciences libraries. It is the third highest structure in Bristol, standing at 68 m (215 ft).
Many regard the building as synonymous with the University of Bristol. It is the centrepiece building of the university precinct and used by the University of Bristol for degree ceremonies which take place inside of the Great Hall.
Architecture commentator Nikolaus Pevsner described it as:
- "a tour de force in Gothic Revival, so convinced, so vast, and so competent that one cannot help feeling respect for it."
It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building and serves as a regional European Documentation Centre.
Read more about Wills Memorial Building: History, Architecture, Restoration Work
Famous quotes containing the words wills, memorial and/or building:
“Virtue? a fig! ‘tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, “Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.””
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
—Bible: New Testament, 2 Corinthians 5:1.