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Victoria Park Baptist Chapel,
Maidstone Street / St John's Lane / Water Lane,
Victoria Park, 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 1903, but we understand it was closed in 1929.

The former Victoria Park Baptist Chapel is first shown on Old Maps of 1903-1904, situated on the north side of St John's Lane, in between its junctions with Water Lane, and Maidstone Street; and first noted in Kelly's Directory of Bristol of 1914.

Its appearance today is of a substantial building, seemingly larger than the building the congregation were later to transfer to further down the road, but this impression may be deceptive, as the extensions to the sides may be modern, and part of its conversion into apartments. Its appearance as a place of worship has nevertheless been retained. The centre bay of the front has a large round-arched central window (now blocked) above the entrance doorway, with matching arches above smaller windows either side. The rounded arches are mirrored in brickwork on the side "bays", giving a unified look to the whole.

The following notice in The London Gazette of 10th December 1918 (p.14594) recorded its registration for marriages:

A Separate Building, duly certified for religious worship, named VICTORIA PARK BAPTIST CHAPEL, situated at St. John's-lane, Victoria Park, Bedminster, in the civil parish of Bristol, in the county borough of Bristol, in Bristol registration district, was, on the sixth December, 1918, registered for solemnizing marriages therein, pursuant to 6th and 7th Wm. IV, c.85. Dated 9th December 1918.

A similar notice, recording the registration of the new building - "being substituted for the Building named Victoria Park Baptist Chapel, situated at St. Johns-lane, Victoria Park" - was published in the Gazette of 13th December 1929 (p.8124).

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 ST5959071232. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Victoria Park Baptist Chapel, Victoria Park, 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 Victoria Park, Bristol, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• 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.