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

Langton Street Chapel (Demolished),
Langton Street,
Redcliffe, Bristol, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Chapel 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 1828, and it has since been demolished, but we don't know when.

The Bristol Town Plans of 1884 show a Methodist Chapel (Wesleyan), with seats for 1200, on the east side of Langton Street, set back from the road, behind the houses, and backing onto the houses in Wellington Street (which ran between Langton Street and Somerset Street). There was a Burial Ground of comparable size to the Chapel adjacent to the building on its left. It was accessed via a jennel between the houses, on the opposite side of which was a School (for Boys & Girls).

It was built to replace a Chapel in Guinea Street, described by Phil Draper, on his ChurchCrawler website as the second (Methodist) chapel to be built in Bristol - "and John Wesley preached here too" Its successor was larger, and "built to a traditional design, with galleries on three sides and a flat ceiling".

Various sources (including Phil) say it opened in 1828; however John Latimer, in The Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century (1887), says it opened in August 1831, and was built by Lady Huntingdon's Connection - "the building, which cost about £4,500, is remarkable only as being the first in Bristol in which a mediaeval style was adopted for a dissenting place of worship".

Perhaps the difference in dates is between the laying of a foundation stone, and its official opening; but even in 1851, at the time of the Religious Census (HO 129/328/1/1/6) they weren't sure. The return, completed by Charles Westlake, Wesleyan Minister, of 15 Somerset Square, Bristol, is for a separate building, used exclusively as a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists, built "about 20 years ago". It had free seating for 500, and "One Thousand" other sittings. The estimated congregation on March 30th was 600 in the morning, with 110 Sunday Scholars, no service in the afternoon, and 800 in the evening, with no Sunday Scholars.

Sadly, the building was destroyed in 1941, so we will never know what it really looked like; however the following notice in The London Gazette of 6th March 1953 (p.1314) suggests it was either replaced, or rebuilt:

A Building certified for worship named LANGTON STREET CHAPEL, Langton Street, Redcliffe, in the registration district of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, was on 24th February, 1953, registered for solemnising marriages therein pursuant to section 42 of the Marriage Act, 1949, in place of a Building of the same name and address. Dated 27th February, 1953.

As "Langton-street Chapel, situate in Langton-street, in the parish of Bedminster", a notice published in the Gazette of 15th September 1837 (p.2428) indicates it was registered for marriages originally on 29th August 1837. Meanwhile, the book Bristol and Its Environs (1875), published by the British Association, notes that the Guinea Street Chapel it replaced became Congregational in 1848. Old Maps show it lay on the north side of the street, approximately half way between the junctions with Jubilee Place, and Redcliffe Hill. It was situated next to St Mary Redcliffe Vicarage, and Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1902 suggests by then it had become Parish Rooms for the Church.

Note: Langton Street no longer exists in the present day. It ran southwards from the Cathay to Clarence Road, parallel to Somerset Street. The name survives as "Langton Street Bridge", a foot bridge, crossing the River Avon from Clarence Road to York Road.

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 Chapel was located at OS grid reference ST5936572117. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Langton Street Chapel (Demolished), Redcliffe, 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 Redcliffe, 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.