Hope Chapel is home to Hope Community Church in

Hotwells Hotwells is a district of the English port city of Bristol. It is located to the south of and below the high ground of Clifton, and directly to the north of the Floating Harbour. The southern entrance to the Avon Gorge, which connects the docks ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The chapel was founded by Lady Henrietta Hope and Lady Glenorchy after visiting the

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

natural hot spa resort in 1784. Lady Hope gave £2,500 towards the cost and Lady Glenorchy agreed to have it done. Lady Hope was ill and her friend decided to name it in her honour. However they both died in 1786 so it was Glenorchy's executor that completed their wishes.E. Dorothy Graham, ‘Hope, Lady Henrietta (c.1750–1786)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 17 June 2017
/ref> It is said that they decided to build it after finding that the only place of worship was up a steep hill in

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

. By 1851 the church had an attendance of 600 to 700 in the morning and 700 to 800 in the evening. By the 1970s attendance was falling and by 1980 it was no longer used as a place of worship. It then became a community centre named the 'Hope Centre', before reopening in 2000 as Hope Community Church, a Congregational Church. Between 2006 and 2013 Bristol and Regional Archaeological Services (BaRAS) maintained a watching brief overseeing works to excavate the crypt ready for conversion into public space.

Description

The south front has four

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

with

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s. Within the hall there is a balcony supported on

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

columns. The interior includes memorials to many members of the congregation from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

References

External links

Hope Chapel (Hope Community Church)
{{Culture in Bristol Churches in Bristol Grade II listed buildings in Bristol

History

Description

Archives

References

External links