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E5 Bristol City Church (City Temple),
3-15 Jamaica Street, BS2 8JP,
Stokes Croft, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church does 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 1954, and we understand it is still open.

Elim@Bristol City Church is a futuristic building, on the north-west corner of Jamaica Street with Hillgrove Street. Long, and low, built of red brick, with decorated sides, and a cross atop the chamfered corner with Hillgrove Street, it is certainly eye-catching.

According to the list of Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) its congregation belongs to the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance.

It was apparently registered for marriages under its alias of "The City Temple", for which see the following notice in The London Gazette of 7th December 1954 (p.6930):

A Building certified for worship named CITY TEMPLE, Jamaica Street, in the registration district of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, was on 1st December, 1954, registered for solemnising marriages therein pursuant to section 41 of the Marriage Act, 1949. Dated 3rd December 1954.

The name "Jamaica Street" is sufficiently uncommon to wonder whether the Gospel Temple in Milk Street, recorded in the list of Places of Worship on the Bristol & Avon Family History Society website with a note that it was demolished in 1954, and relocated to Jamaica Street, may have been its forerunner.

Certainly, a notice published in the Gazette of earlier that year (25th June 1954 (p.3769) cancelled the registration of "GOSPEL TEMPLE, Milk Street". Its original registration took place on 26th January 1932 (Gazette of 2nd February 1932 (p.727)) under the name of "BETHEL TEMPLE".

Possibly this was a take-over of the former Milk Street Methodist Chapel, which closed in 1929; but just to confuse the situation even more, the Registrar-General's list referred to above includes yet another address - the Elim Fellowship Centre Main Sanctuary, at Level 4 Fairfax House, Union Street. However, according to various sources online, Fairfax House was demolished in 1988, and its site now occupied by The Galleries shopping centre, and car park. So either the Registrar General's list is out of date, or there is a more recent Fairfax House which I haven't located.

When I first compiled this account, in 2014, E5 had 3 other "plantings" in Bristol - in Knowle West, Kingswood and Portishead, but the current (2019) E5 Bristol City Church website no longer mentions them, so I assume they are no longer active.

Denomination

Now or formerly Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance.

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 is located at OS grid reference ST5901773855. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• E5 Bristol City Church (City Temple), Stokes Croft, 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 Stokes Croft, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Parish Histories, Burial data, &c. on the Bristol & Avon Family History Society (null) (verified 2018-11-04)
• You may want to visit E5 Bristol City Church website for present-day information.
• Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010) is available as a "Freedom of Information" document on the website What Do They Know. (verified 2018-10-14)
• 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.