Default Image We do not have a
Photograph at present.
Image by courtesy of
openclipart.org

Vaughan Mission Rooms,
1 Rm Ground Floor, 1 Rm 1st Floor, 21 Richmond Dale, BS8 2UB,
Clifton, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

We believe the Church 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 1985, though it is now closed, but we don't yet know when.

This place of worship first came to my attention in Places recorded by the Registrar General under the provisions of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (2010). The Bristol Town Plans of 1884 show a large Reading Room, which I assume was the forerunner to the Rooms. It facing onto what was then named Richmond Hill, and backed onto Granby Hill. Both of these streets have since been renamed, to Richmond Dale, and Belgrave Hill, respectively, probably because the same street names existed elsewhere in Clifton. Maps of 1916-1918 show the Reading Room renamed as a Mission House, and likewise on Maps of 1952-1963.

It would be satisfying to know who "Vaughan" was, and what meetings took place in the "House". It may have been what Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 describes as "a Mission house, containing commodious reading and lecture rooms and a good lending library [which] has been erected for the benefit of the poor in the Quarry", described in conjunction with St John the Evangelist, and St Anselm, Clifton. However, it was to be another eighty years until it was mentioned by name, for which see an article Bristol's Lord Mayor honours selfless community people with medals, published in the Bristol Post on 12th May 2010. The awards included Robert Flowers, who "had gone the extra mile", and "in 1985, he bought the Vaughan Mission Rooms in Clifton and converted them into a Martial Arts Club and the first Zen Centre in Bristol, practising the teaching of Soto Zen".

At the time of writing this account originally (2014), the building was observed to have been renamed "Amberley Hall", and was still in communal use; but it seemed unlikely Zen Buddhist sessions were still being held here. The most probable explanation is that they moved to the current home of the Bristol Zen centre - 91-93 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, for which see the Bristol Zen Dojo website.

Denomination

Now or formerly Zen Buddhist.

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 ST5725874706. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Vaughan Mission Rooms, Clifton, 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 Clifton, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Previously published articles in the Bristol Post (null) (verified 2018-11-12)
• Information provided on the Bristol Zen Dojo website. (verified 2018-11-21)
• 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)

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.