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

Thrissel Street Chapel (Demolished),
Thrissell Street,
Easton, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Chapel did NOT have 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 1830, but we understand it was closed in 1888.

Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website notes that Thrissell Street Baptist Chapel as the forerunner to Kensington Baptist Church. It was recorded on the Religious Census of 1851 (HO 129/330/4/1/13) as "Baptist Chapel (Thrissell Street)", and described as a separate building, used exclusively as a place of worship, erected in 1830. There was free seating for 200, and 380 "other" sittings, and the estimated congregation on March 30th was 170 at morning service, and 280 in the evening, with 75, and 42 Sunday Scholars respectively. The return was completed by Robert Tubbs, its Minister, of Stapleton Road, Bristol.

The building was damaged by fire in 1854, after which it was rebuilt to a design by Henry Crisp. The following notice in The London Gazette of 8th January 1861 (p.86) recorded its registration for marriages:

NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building, named Thrissell-street Chapel, situate at Thrissell-street, in the parish of St. Philip and Jacob, in the city and county of Bristol, in the district of Clifton, being a building certified according to law as a place of religious worship, was, on the 31st day of December, 1860, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. IV., cap. 85. Dated 1st January 1861.

By 1888, the congregation had "outgrown" Crisp's Church, and the present Kensington Baptist Church, further to the north along Stapleton Road was built, a similar notice of registration being published in the Gazette of 10th July 1888 (p.3766) for "Kensington Baptist Chapel ... being substituted for the building known as Thrissell-street Baptist Chapel, now disused".

Afterwards, the Thrissell Street premises were probably taken over by another congregation, as a notice of cancellation, for a building named "THRISSELL STREET Hall, Stapleton Road", was published in the Gazette of 1st April 1971 (p.3095). The Hall had been registered originally on 10th April 1894.

Old Maps up to the 1950s show the Chapel on the east side of Thrissell Street, at the Stapleton Road end, set back from the Stapleton Road plots. There is a photograph of "Easton, Bristol, 1973" in the "Bristol Before & After" Album of Stephen Dowle's Flickr Photostream, showing a view of Thrissell Street looking towards Stapleton Road, and (I think) the Chapel building can be seen at the far end of the street on the right. It appears to have had a turret on either side at the front, and a large central window.

Stephen points out in his commentary that the street was demolished wholesale in 1974, and by 1980, the Easton Sports Centre had been built. Today, however, Google StreetView shows a Bristol City Council building, and a car park, occupying the site where the Chapel stood.

Denomination

Now or formerly Baptist.

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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST6019873598. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Thrissel Street Chapel (Demolished), Easton, 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 Easton, 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)
• Overview of Stephen Dowle's Flickr Photostream (null) (verified 2018-11-07)
• 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.