Default Image Place of Worship has been
Demolished.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Bristol Central Hall (partly Demolished),
Old Market Street,
Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church had a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1817, though it is now closed, but we don't yet know when.

"The Wesleyan Chapel, Old Market-street, was erected in 1817, and can seat about 2500 persons." [Extract from Webster & Co.'s Postal and Commercial Directory of the City of Bristol, and County of Glamorgan, 1865]

The Bristol Town Plan of 1885 shows the chapel, set in a block bounded by Red Cross Street to the north, Red Cross Lane to the east, and Old Market Street to the south, with access from Red Cross Street, where it is set behind a small burial ground. There was another long narrow burial ground to the west of the chapel, and a Sunday School building behind it, to the south.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 25th November 1859 (p.4303) recorded its registration for marriages:

NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named the Old Market-street, Wesleyan Chapel, situate in the Old Market-street, in the parish of St. Philip Within, in the city and county of Bristol, in the district of Bristol, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 18th day of November, 1859, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. IV., cap. 85. Dated 22nd November 1859.

Its 20th century replacement, dating from 1924, is ably described by Phil Draper on his ChurchCrawler website, with photographs - "the interior was very graceful with sweeping galleries, tip up seats and a large central organ all under an ornate dome with roundels". Evidently this involved purchase of more land, with the principal entrance moved to Old Market Street, at the south end.

An appropriate notice of its registration for marriages, as "BRISTOL WESLEYAN MISSION CENTRAL HALL, situated at Old Market-street, in the civil parish of Bristol", was published in the Gazette of 6th June 1924 (p.4554), "being substituted for the Building named Old Market-street Chapel, situated at Old Market-street, Bristol, now disused".

Sadly, only the front facade now survives, the remainder being demolished, and a block of apartments built in its place.

Denomination

Now or formerly Wesleyan Methodist.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church was located at OS grid reference ST5967173228. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Bristol Central Hall (partly Demolished), Bristol shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Bristol shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• The Church officiando's “Bible” - Phil Draper's ChurchCrawler (null) (verified 2018-10-16)
• Notices of Civil Registration of Places of Worship for marriages are published in the London edition of The Gazette. Hint: search for registrations from 1998 by choosing 'Church' notices, and the option 'Registration for solemnising marriage'. (verified 2018-12-11)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.