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

Albany Methodist Chapel (formerly Baptist) (Demolished),
Albany Place / Shaftesbury Avenue,
Montpelier, 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 by 1901, but we understand it was closed by 1980.

This building is assumed to be one of two redundant Methodist buildings purchased by the Avon Touring Theatre Company in 1980, and offered to the Montpelier Community Association, who had recently lost their "home". The Sunday School, adjacent to the Chapel, was the first to be renovated, but by 1984, funds had run out, and the Chapel was by then in such poor repair that it had to be demolished.

It is first shown on Old Maps of 1882-1884, as a (General) Baptist Chapel with seats for 130. The road was then named "Albany Place" - a continuation westwards of Albany Road, and at the time, a dead-end, as Shaftesbury Avenue was yet to be built. The latter, and building which became the Sunday School, are first shown on Old Maps of 1905, so it is assumed they were built in the intervening years. It was first noted as Methodist in Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902, having been registered for marriages the previous year, as indicated by the following notice in The London Gazette of 3rd May 1901 p.3053) indicates:

NOTICE is hereby given, that a separate building named Albany Chapel, situated at Albany-road, Montpelier, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, in the registration district of Bristol, being a building certified according to law as a place of meeting for religious worship, was on the 30th day of April, 1901, duly registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to the Act of 6th and 7th Wm. 4, c.85. Dated 1st May 1901.

No corresponding notice for its de-registration has been found.

More recently, Albany Place has been partly cleared, and wholly pedestrianised, so no longer appears on modern maps. As of Google StreetView: May 2012, the former Sunday School is still in use by the same association, renamed in 1982 as the "Albany Centre Community Association". Now named "The Albany Centre", it is described on their website as "an artist run community space dedicated to the rehearsal of circus and street theatre".

Finally, I am grateful for the information provided in the "history and ethos" section Albany Centre (Albany Artists) website. Its assistance has been most useful in the compilation of this account.

Denomination

Now or formerly Primitive 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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST5958074353. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Albany Methodist Chapel (formerly Baptist) (Demolished), Montpelier, 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 Montpelier, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• “An artist run community space dedicated to the rehearsal of circus and street theatre” - the Albany Centre (Albany Artists) (null) (verified 2018-11-15)
• 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.