St Nicholas Church - Baldwin Street, Bristol, UK
N 51° 27.230 W 002° 35.552
30U E 528311 N 5700373
The church was initially built in the mid 14th century with the church being rebuilt from the crypt up in 1769. The church was bombed in the Second World War and restored in 1975. It reopened as an Anglican church in 2018 after 60 years of other use.
Waymark Code: WM11MXX
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/16/2019
Views: 2
Wikipedia has an article about St Nicholas church that tells us:
St Nicholas is a church in St Nicholas Street, Bristol, England. The church was bombed in the 2nd World War and rebuilt in 1974–1975 as a church museum. This museum closed in 2007 and the building was used by the city council as offices; in 2018 the church came back into use as an Anglican place of worship in the Diocese of Bristol.
The first church was founded before 1154, with a chancel extending over the south gate of the city. The gate and old church were demolished to make way for the rebuilding of Bristol Bridge, and the church was rebuilt in 1762–1769 by James Bridges and Thomas Paty, who rebuilt the spire. Part of the old church and town wall survives in the 14th-century crypt.
The interior was destroyed by bombing in the Bristol Blitz of 1940 and rebuilt in 1974–1975 as a church museum. This closed in 2007 and the building was used by the city council as offices. The building still holds statues of King Edward I and King Edward III which were removed from Arno's Court Triumphal Arch. The original statues were taken from Bristol's Lawfords' Gate that was demolished around 1760. Other statues are 13th-century figures from Bristol's Newgate representing Robert, the builder of Bristol Castle, and Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances, builder of the fortified walls of Bristol. They were moved to the church, due to their deteriorating condition, in 1898.
It also holds one of only two public commissions by Hogarth, the tripartite altarpiece, Sealing the Tomb which was originally painted for St Mary Redcliffe Church in 1755. The painting remained at St Mary Redcliffe until 1858, when the Victorian community mounted a campaign to remove those furnishings which were not in keeping with the church's original Gothic character. The three paintings were sold for £20 to the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of the Fine Arts (later to become the Royal West of England Academy). In 1910 their sale was again proposed, prompting the Bristol Times and Mirror to comment "Bristol will be looked upon as one of those places which prefer hard cash to art treasures" (Bristol Times and Mirror, 22 February 1910). In 1955 the paintings were passed over to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and restored whilst residing in St Nicholas' church.
The building has been designated as a grade II* listed building.
In January 2018, it was announced that St Nicholas' church would be re-opened by the Church of England and used for worship once more. It will be part of the HTB network, having been planted by Holy Trinity Brompton. The church was re-opened on 30 September 2018. The first service for 60 years, was on Sunday 9 December 2018.
As mentioned, the church is listed with the entry at the Historic England website advising:
Church, now a museum. Mid C14, completely rebuilt above the crypt 1769, by James Bridges, steeple and interior by Thomas Paty. Bath stone ashlar and Pennant rubble.
PLAN: nave and W tower. Georgian Gothic Revival style.
EXTERIOR: windowless E end projecting to the centre, articulated by slight diagonally-set buttresses; below a moulded string are C14 rubble crypt walls with quatrefoil openings. 7-bay N elevation, a re-set C15 three-light mullion window in the E bay and an inserted C20 door to the W of that; tall 5-light Perpendicular windows separated by buttresses up to a blind arcaded parapet. The crypt wall is exposed on the S side through the falling ground, and has a gabled porch in the second bay from the W; parapeted vestry in the SW corner has a 4-light S window. 2-stage tower: the N door has an ogee hood, with C20 glazing and small entrance lobby; above is an 8-foil oculus; the belfry has paired windows with ogee hoods, the bottom half blind, the top louvred, and clasping pilaster buttresses, panelled in 2 halves with trefoil heads to the belfry, a coved cornice and open arcaded parapet, with pinnacles with ogee gablets; on the S face is a clock. Octagonal 3-stage spire with oculi around the middle stage.
INTERIOR: largely rebuilt after Second World War bombing. The fine mid C14 crypt is 4 bays with tierceron vaulting and good animate and foliate bosses, on triple attached shafts to the aisles with foliate capitals, and continuous moulding to the arcade; at the E end is an arched panel with good figure stops and a hexafoil panel.
FITTINGS: C18 baluster-shaped font; brass eagle lectern c1480. Memorials: C16 wall memorial with a panelled base, flanking buttresses with pinnacles, an arch over with panelled soffit and an effigy on one elbow.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The mid C14 church was demolished in 1762; Bridges' design, building off the old crypt, was an early and remarkably well-studied attempt at Gothic revival, and the windows have similarities with those of St Peter's, Peter Street (qv). The interior had a very fine Rococo plaster ceiling by Thomas Stocking (Ison).