Report - Pro Cathedral, Bristol - September 2012

[Seffy]

Pro Cathedral, Clifton, Bristol - September 2012

Visited with whodareswins.

Some history:

The Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Apostles was the Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Bristol, England from 1850 to 1973.
The Pro-Cathedral was replaced in 1973 by the Cathedral Church of SS. Peter and Paul, also known as Clifton Cathedral.
Work commenced on the building in 1834, but halted the following year when the foundations failed on what was a challenging hillside site. A second attempt to reinforce the foundations was made in 1843, but this again failed and the building lay abandoned until 1848 when a roof was placed on the half-completed building so that it could be used as a church.
In 1965 architects were commissioned to undertake the design of a new cathedral on a different site in Clifton. Construction began in March 1970 and completed in May 1973. That same year, on June 29, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the new cathedral was consecrated and opened and the pro-Cathedral was closed.
The cathedral and site became the home of a Steiner school until 2002, when it was sold for redevelopment.
During 2007 the space was run as a theatre and art venue by The Invisible Circus and Artspace Lifespace.

Link to info about the new student accommodation

Info on the VINCI construction website

The main reason we visited this site was actually for the crane, however once we arrived on site, it was clear that the building itself was worth an explore, offering views from the top that are just as good as the crane. This was a lot easier than having to tackle Vinci's crane trapdoor system, which seems to have been installed on many of the cranes in Bristol at the moment.

Work has started on this Grade II listed building, turning it into apartments and offices. More student accommodation for Bristol then it looks like!
Much has changed since the site was popular with explorers back in 2008, then it was explorable as it was when it had been left.
Me and various others have looked at this site since, but no such luck so another go was needed as I still hadn't seen inside.

On with some pics.

Cheers for looking ​