In medieval times a shrine dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria stood in Bedminster at the junction of the present Lombard Street and East Street; the remains of this shrine were finally removed in 1887 to make way for the offices of the Imperial Tobacco Company. In 1854 the mission priest, the Rev. William Vaughan (later Bishop of Plymouth) acquired a site at the junction of Regent Road and East Street, where a modest church and schoolroom were built at a cost of £518 from designs by Charles Hansom (who, with his brother Joseph, was later to build Vaughan’s cathedral at Plymouth). These soon became inadequate and in 1870 Bishop Clifford of Clifton asked Hansom to look for a larger site, closer to the city centre. The church and schoolroom were later sold and became part of Bedminster Library, and the diocesan historian J. A. Harding suggests that parts survive within the present building.
The newly-laid out Victoria Street was chosen as a suitably prominent and prestigious location, and here Hansom designed another school and church (1872-4). There was no room for a presbytery, and the mission was served by priests from the Pro-Cathedral and the Catholic Reformatory at Arno’s Court until 1885, when a resident priest was appointed, living in a nearby rented house. With the higher standards required under the 1902 Education Act, lack of playing space in Hansom's designs meant that the school was required to relocate yet again. A two-acre site on Dean Lane was acquired, occupied by a pair of attached houses and next to a Church of England school and a disused colliery, which had closed in 1906. This was large enough for a school, church, parish hall and presbytery. The school and presbytery came first, with the school opening in 1912; post-war building restrictions and lack of funds meant that it was not until almost a decade later, in 1921, that work finally started on the church. The church opened for worship towards the end of the following year, although the main body was not completed until 1926-7. It was described as ‘dignified but not pretty'. I personally find this quite an interesting description, because even in its abandoned state almost 100 years later, the exact same statement can be applied with precisely the same validity.
The building is of local brick except for the bases and capitals of the columns, which are of Bath stone. Interestingly, prior to the church's closure, it was still conducting mass in traditional Latin.
The school building, and part of the Church, were destroyed in an air raid in 1941, leading to new primary school buildings being opened next door to the church in 1966. However, the west front of the church remained simply bricked up and incomplete until 1961, when plans were finally put in hand for the building of the narthex, western organ gallery and baptistery. These additions were generally in the spirit of the original design, but without the intended southwest tower. The church received a new floor and seating at the same time, and the architects also replaced the presbytery with a new and larger building, linked to the church. Source for the above information.
By all accounts (or, at least, the three which I could be bothered to look up) there isn't really much else to say in the general history of the church. Both it and the school buildings essentially functioned steadily in their intended capacity until for around 50 years until a structural assessment of the building identified significant structural weaknesses relating to the roof and it was determined that mass could no longer be held at the church. The Church of the Holy Cross subsequently closed for renovations. However, the cost of renovation proved prohibitive and the temporary closure became semi-permanent. It was boarded up and its fate left in the hands of God (and / or the legal owners of the building). God (and / or the legal owners of the building) eventually decided to put the Church of the Holy Cross up for sale in 2023, estimating that renovation would cost almost £2,000,000.
Something that I learned in the course of researching the history of this place is that any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853, and that any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all. I'd never considered the death of the traditional graveyard before.
Ever since I moved back to Bristol a few years ago I've always wanted to get inside this building. I would walk past it practically every day - if I wanted to go into town, if I needed to do my weekly shop, or if I was simply out and about, pretty much every route on either the way out or way back would take me past the Church of the Holy Cross. Every few weeks I'd poke my head over the fence to see if any of the local reprobates / addicts had peeled back one of the numerous boarded-up windows, kindly allowing an interested party such as myself a legitimate way in. But no. Clearly, even addicts and reprobates have boundaries. Good for them. Bad for me.
And so, I wandered and waited. Then, one day, after coming back from a work trip, I noticed that there was a huge pile of dirt on the lawn outside the church. Clearly, something was going on, and clearly this was my opportunity. One of the conditions of the sale of the building was that the stained glass windows would be sold, and they're always my favourite part of a church. I had to think of a way to get in that could be managed in a reasonable timeframe because otherwise they might have removed them, rendering it a still interesting, but significantly less visually appealing shell.
It was actually quite fun thinking of a way in. Around this area, as with many others throughout the country, if you give certain people an inch they will take a mile. Therefore, they were quite clever in ensuring that the only scaffolding was located at the back of the church, and to access it you have to enter the front playground of the school described in the history section of this report, hop over one of the school fences and enter into the playground at the back of the school. Another thing I learned during the scoping process is that those actions are not just illegal, but criminal.
Any lawyer worth their salt could argue that someone entering school grounds without authorisation is either causing or permitting a nuisance or disturbance; regardless of whether the school is open or not at the time. How do you define 'cause'? How do you define 'permit'?
Anyway, as someone without a criminal record (and someone who very much intends to maintain that status), I knew that accessing the church in that way was an unnecessary risk. I didn't even know if the scaffolding led to any open windows / openings of any other type.
Faced with this difficulty, the logic I used to determine my remaining entry methods was simple, and as follows:
- Entry through a boarded-up window? No
- Entry through the schoolyard to the scaffolding? No, and also might not even lead to any possible entry points
- Entry through the brick walls? No, because I'm neither a bulldozer nor the Kool Aid Man
- Entry through the front door? Huh. Only option left. Time to put on my sneaky boy sneakers for extra sneakiness
As soon as I realised that the I could get in through the front door, I left my flat and waited until one of the contractors opened the front door. Only took around 10 mins. He got something out of his van, went back inside and didn't close the door. Thanks, friend!
So I leave it a couple of minutes and, like the innocent, air-headed non-local that I am, I wandered into the courtyard and towards the door. People are talking inside but I don't think they're facing my direction. So I poke my head in and it's all (apparently) clear. In I go. Finally.
So this is where explore began for me and where the report begins for you. From this point, I will separate the report into 2 sections: (1) Soggy presbytery derp, and (2) Cool church interior. Starting, of course, with the part everyone wants to see first
:
(1) Soggy presbytery derp:
The inside of the residential presbytery was as uninteresting as it was generic. Anyone who's been into any number of abandoned houses will recognise each of the following pictures as something they've seen on their own adventures. However, I found them of surprising personal value due to the fact I'd wondered what was behind those walls multiple times a week for a good few years at this point.
Quietly walking into the hallway, I turn my head left and hear voices and hear footsteps:
Turn my head right and don't hear any voices or footsteps:
So anyway, I decide turning left was the most sensible (if counterintuitive) option, as I want to understand where these workers are. If I know what they're doing and where they're moving, I can gauge how long I can get (if any time at all) in the church itself.
Soggy derp misc. room + other misc. room:
Soggy derp kitchen:
Soggy derp room #69
I like how in the above pic there's a key in the door, suggesting they locked each of the rooms even though they were boarding everything up. Gotta take security seriously!
At this point, as I was turning around to check the next room out, I accidentally kicked a screwdriver that had been on the floor outside the door. I hear the voices upstairs stop in mid conversation, so I don't move for a few seconds. Thankfully, they started talking soon after, so I took that as a sign I was free to continue.
Soggy derp living room. Even priests need to warm their bodies. God only warms their hearts.
Always gotta check the shitters in these places. Genuinely unintentional soggy presbytery derp shitter selfie for the homies:
Getting bored of posting soggy derp pics so here's a couple more:
At this point, someone started walking downstairs and I was conflicted in terms of what I should do. There was a roughly 1 in 8 chance the person was going to enter the room I was currently in because there were only around 8 rooms on the bottom floor. Do I risk it and scare the shit out of some dude, or do I leave and hope not to get noticed / hope they aren't on the way out and going to shut the door? I decided to risk it because, as previously stated, I really wanted to check this place out. Fortunately, he came down the stairs and turned left. I was on his right. Sucka! Wait around 5 mins and he goes back upstairs with a second bloke who I had no idea was on the same floor as me!
Decided the only sensible option was now to just make for the crown jewels, which was of course the church itself.
(2) Cool church interior
As you saw in that big pile of dirt and miscellaneous shite that was plonked in the centre of the courtyard, a lot of debris etc. had already been collected and removed. I am very glad that I visited this place as early as I did because they'd clearly focused their efforts on the church part of the building. If I waited any longer it may have been entirely stripped.
Happy to see this view as I stepped round the corner and into the church area:
At this point, I stopped caring about being caught. I surely had at least 2 or 3 minutes without interference, and even though that wouldn't give me time to get pics it would give me enough time to see the different parts of the church. Thankfully, I had more time than that, so it didn't matter.
Stained glass window. The cross in the middle, raised high above the others, depicts Jesus being crucified. You can't see in the pic, but the ribbon on the crucifix says 'INRI', which stands for 'Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum' (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). Surprisingly, thanks to my penchant for old-school thrash / death metal, I actually already knew what INRI stood for. If you like the same thing, check out 'INRI' by Sarcofago. If you don't, then Sarcofagofuckyourself.
View of the central chamber of the church:
Stained glass window picture that came out crap:
Cool stained glass window. I really like that God at the top is the only colourful thing on it and he's golden looking down on the dingy grey below. No idea if that is how it was designed or not, but I liked it:
At either side of the church there was this dingy, 5x2 meter hall sheltered from all light. Probably where the priests kept the page boys or something (no offense to the homie Desmond Lang, sure you're one of the good ones mate):
Another cool stained glass window:
And another one. Man, seriously, check out the face of that baby. I know kids look like their parents, but damn. Kid looks just as disdainful and bored as their mother.
This is a view of the front of the inside of the church, as you'd see if you walked in from the street. I wanted to climb up the skeleton stairs, but didn't as I figured it'd be much harder to plead innocence if someone walked in and I was up there, as opposed to just following my curiosity and staying respectful:
It was at this point that I realised that contractors don't work 24 hour shifts and sometimes had the audacity to actually go home to their friends and families, like some sort of assholes. This realisation came in the form of some very loud and continuous banging which I interpreted as the packing up of tools etc. I quickly took a bunch more pics, then did my best olympic power-walking impression with my sneaky trainers right to the front door to make my escape. Anyway, that's part of my story. Let's get back to the history.
If you go through the entrance on the right of the above pic, you see this door through the darkness which is the door I looked at hundreds of times over the years:
Closer pic of the skeleton stairs:
If I did go upstairs, I would have seen this, just closer:
View of the majority of the inside of the church:
Central part where homie Desmond Lang would have preached to his church homies:
Another pic of the whole church interior:
Back outside now. Did a walk round the block, came back and less than 10 mins later the vans had gone and the doors were locked!
So long, and thanks for all the pics
The newly-laid out Victoria Street was chosen as a suitably prominent and prestigious location, and here Hansom designed another school and church (1872-4). There was no room for a presbytery, and the mission was served by priests from the Pro-Cathedral and the Catholic Reformatory at Arno’s Court until 1885, when a resident priest was appointed, living in a nearby rented house. With the higher standards required under the 1902 Education Act, lack of playing space in Hansom's designs meant that the school was required to relocate yet again. A two-acre site on Dean Lane was acquired, occupied by a pair of attached houses and next to a Church of England school and a disused colliery, which had closed in 1906. This was large enough for a school, church, parish hall and presbytery. The school and presbytery came first, with the school opening in 1912; post-war building restrictions and lack of funds meant that it was not until almost a decade later, in 1921, that work finally started on the church. The church opened for worship towards the end of the following year, although the main body was not completed until 1926-7. It was described as ‘dignified but not pretty'. I personally find this quite an interesting description, because even in its abandoned state almost 100 years later, the exact same statement can be applied with precisely the same validity.
The building is of local brick except for the bases and capitals of the columns, which are of Bath stone. Interestingly, prior to the church's closure, it was still conducting mass in traditional Latin.
The school building, and part of the Church, were destroyed in an air raid in 1941, leading to new primary school buildings being opened next door to the church in 1966. However, the west front of the church remained simply bricked up and incomplete until 1961, when plans were finally put in hand for the building of the narthex, western organ gallery and baptistery. These additions were generally in the spirit of the original design, but without the intended southwest tower. The church received a new floor and seating at the same time, and the architects also replaced the presbytery with a new and larger building, linked to the church. Source for the above information.
By all accounts (or, at least, the three which I could be bothered to look up) there isn't really much else to say in the general history of the church. Both it and the school buildings essentially functioned steadily in their intended capacity until for around 50 years until a structural assessment of the building identified significant structural weaknesses relating to the roof and it was determined that mass could no longer be held at the church. The Church of the Holy Cross subsequently closed for renovations. However, the cost of renovation proved prohibitive and the temporary closure became semi-permanent. It was boarded up and its fate left in the hands of God (and / or the legal owners of the building). God (and / or the legal owners of the building) eventually decided to put the Church of the Holy Cross up for sale in 2023, estimating that renovation would cost almost £2,000,000.
Something that I learned in the course of researching the history of this place is that any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853, and that any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all. I'd never considered the death of the traditional graveyard before.
Ever since I moved back to Bristol a few years ago I've always wanted to get inside this building. I would walk past it practically every day - if I wanted to go into town, if I needed to do my weekly shop, or if I was simply out and about, pretty much every route on either the way out or way back would take me past the Church of the Holy Cross. Every few weeks I'd poke my head over the fence to see if any of the local reprobates / addicts had peeled back one of the numerous boarded-up windows, kindly allowing an interested party such as myself a legitimate way in. But no. Clearly, even addicts and reprobates have boundaries. Good for them. Bad for me.
And so, I wandered and waited. Then, one day, after coming back from a work trip, I noticed that there was a huge pile of dirt on the lawn outside the church. Clearly, something was going on, and clearly this was my opportunity. One of the conditions of the sale of the building was that the stained glass windows would be sold, and they're always my favourite part of a church. I had to think of a way to get in that could be managed in a reasonable timeframe because otherwise they might have removed them, rendering it a still interesting, but significantly less visually appealing shell.
It was actually quite fun thinking of a way in. Around this area, as with many others throughout the country, if you give certain people an inch they will take a mile. Therefore, they were quite clever in ensuring that the only scaffolding was located at the back of the church, and to access it you have to enter the front playground of the school described in the history section of this report, hop over one of the school fences and enter into the playground at the back of the school. Another thing I learned during the scoping process is that those actions are not just illegal, but criminal.
Any lawyer worth their salt could argue that someone entering school grounds without authorisation is either causing or permitting a nuisance or disturbance; regardless of whether the school is open or not at the time. How do you define 'cause'? How do you define 'permit'?
Anyway, as someone without a criminal record (and someone who very much intends to maintain that status), I knew that accessing the church in that way was an unnecessary risk. I didn't even know if the scaffolding led to any open windows / openings of any other type.
Faced with this difficulty, the logic I used to determine my remaining entry methods was simple, and as follows:
- Entry through a boarded-up window? No
- Entry through the schoolyard to the scaffolding? No, and also might not even lead to any possible entry points
- Entry through the brick walls? No, because I'm neither a bulldozer nor the Kool Aid Man
- Entry through the front door? Huh. Only option left. Time to put on my sneaky boy sneakers for extra sneakiness
As soon as I realised that the I could get in through the front door, I left my flat and waited until one of the contractors opened the front door. Only took around 10 mins. He got something out of his van, went back inside and didn't close the door. Thanks, friend!
So I leave it a couple of minutes and, like the innocent, air-headed non-local that I am, I wandered into the courtyard and towards the door. People are talking inside but I don't think they're facing my direction. So I poke my head in and it's all (apparently) clear. In I go. Finally.
So this is where explore began for me and where the report begins for you. From this point, I will separate the report into 2 sections: (1) Soggy presbytery derp, and (2) Cool church interior. Starting, of course, with the part everyone wants to see first
:(1) Soggy presbytery derp:
The inside of the residential presbytery was as uninteresting as it was generic. Anyone who's been into any number of abandoned houses will recognise each of the following pictures as something they've seen on their own adventures. However, I found them of surprising personal value due to the fact I'd wondered what was behind those walls multiple times a week for a good few years at this point.
Quietly walking into the hallway, I turn my head left and hear voices and hear footsteps:
Turn my head right and don't hear any voices or footsteps:
So anyway, I decide turning left was the most sensible (if counterintuitive) option, as I want to understand where these workers are. If I know what they're doing and where they're moving, I can gauge how long I can get (if any time at all) in the church itself.
Soggy derp misc. room + other misc. room:
Soggy derp kitchen:
Soggy derp room #69
I like how in the above pic there's a key in the door, suggesting they locked each of the rooms even though they were boarding everything up. Gotta take security seriously!
At this point, as I was turning around to check the next room out, I accidentally kicked a screwdriver that had been on the floor outside the door. I hear the voices upstairs stop in mid conversation, so I don't move for a few seconds. Thankfully, they started talking soon after, so I took that as a sign I was free to continue.
Soggy derp living room. Even priests need to warm their bodies. God only warms their hearts.
Always gotta check the shitters in these places. Genuinely unintentional soggy presbytery derp shitter selfie for the homies:
Getting bored of posting soggy derp pics so here's a couple more:
At this point, someone started walking downstairs and I was conflicted in terms of what I should do. There was a roughly 1 in 8 chance the person was going to enter the room I was currently in because there were only around 8 rooms on the bottom floor. Do I risk it and scare the shit out of some dude, or do I leave and hope not to get noticed / hope they aren't on the way out and going to shut the door? I decided to risk it because, as previously stated, I really wanted to check this place out. Fortunately, he came down the stairs and turned left. I was on his right. Sucka! Wait around 5 mins and he goes back upstairs with a second bloke who I had no idea was on the same floor as me!
Decided the only sensible option was now to just make for the crown jewels, which was of course the church itself.
(2) Cool church interior
As you saw in that big pile of dirt and miscellaneous shite that was plonked in the centre of the courtyard, a lot of debris etc. had already been collected and removed. I am very glad that I visited this place as early as I did because they'd clearly focused their efforts on the church part of the building. If I waited any longer it may have been entirely stripped.
Happy to see this view as I stepped round the corner and into the church area:
At this point, I stopped caring about being caught. I surely had at least 2 or 3 minutes without interference, and even though that wouldn't give me time to get pics it would give me enough time to see the different parts of the church. Thankfully, I had more time than that, so it didn't matter.
Stained glass window. The cross in the middle, raised high above the others, depicts Jesus being crucified. You can't see in the pic, but the ribbon on the crucifix says 'INRI', which stands for 'Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum' (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). Surprisingly, thanks to my penchant for old-school thrash / death metal, I actually already knew what INRI stood for. If you like the same thing, check out 'INRI' by Sarcofago. If you don't, then Sarcofagofuckyourself.
View of the central chamber of the church:
Stained glass window picture that came out crap:
Cool stained glass window. I really like that God at the top is the only colourful thing on it and he's golden looking down on the dingy grey below. No idea if that is how it was designed or not, but I liked it:
At either side of the church there was this dingy, 5x2 meter hall sheltered from all light. Probably where the priests kept the page boys or something (no offense to the homie Desmond Lang, sure you're one of the good ones mate):
Another cool stained glass window:
And another one. Man, seriously, check out the face of that baby. I know kids look like their parents, but damn. Kid looks just as disdainful and bored as their mother.
This is a view of the front of the inside of the church, as you'd see if you walked in from the street. I wanted to climb up the skeleton stairs, but didn't as I figured it'd be much harder to plead innocence if someone walked in and I was up there, as opposed to just following my curiosity and staying respectful:
It was at this point that I realised that contractors don't work 24 hour shifts and sometimes had the audacity to actually go home to their friends and families, like some sort of assholes. This realisation came in the form of some very loud and continuous banging which I interpreted as the packing up of tools etc. I quickly took a bunch more pics, then did my best olympic power-walking impression with my sneaky trainers right to the front door to make my escape. Anyway, that's part of my story. Let's get back to the history.
If you go through the entrance on the right of the above pic, you see this door through the darkness which is the door I looked at hundreds of times over the years:
Closer pic of the skeleton stairs:
If I did go upstairs, I would have seen this, just closer:
View of the majority of the inside of the church:
Central part where homie Desmond Lang would have preached to his church homies:
Another pic of the whole church interior:
Back outside now. Did a walk round the block, came back and less than 10 mins later the vans had gone and the doors were locked!
So long, and thanks for all the pics
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