The Trinity Centre is a community arts centre and independent live music venue.The building has been managed by Trinity Community Arts Ltd. since 2003 and was formerly the Holy Trinity Church, in the Parish of St Philip and St Jacob, Bristol, UK.
Trinity Community Arts Ltd
Trinity Community Arts is an arts charity formed in 2002 to manage the Trinity Centre. The charity stages arts and community events and activities in the venue, including hosting space for Black creatives and at citywide events including Bristol Harbour Festival.
The charity is continuing to the venue's tradition as a community arts hub, offering a diverse programme of activities. The venue is frequently cited as one of the best live music venues in the Bristol area.
The charity has undertaken several phases of repair and renovation to the building, including a series of structural repairs to the historic fabric, completed after an appeal to save the venue in 2018. Works were funded by Historic England. Other projects undertaken have included construction of recording studios into first floor naves and installation of a new lift and extensive refurbishment works of the first floor and creation of a new reception area.
Holy Trinity Church
The former Holy Trinity Church is a grade II* listed building first listed in 1959.
In 1818, £1,000,000 was given by Parliament to build new churches across the country from the spoils of the recent war against France. In 1824, a further £500,000 was given to continue with the mass build of new churches around the country, of which the Holy Trinity Church is one. These acts became known as the 'Million' and 'Half Million' Acts. Churches built as a result of these acts became known as 'Million', 'Half Million', or Waterloo churches.
The church was built between 1829 and 1832 by Thomas Rickman and Henry Hutchinson, two architects from Birmingham, who also designed the piers, perimeter walls and railings which are also listed.
The church is built using Bath stone in a Perpendicular style, a style of English Gothic architecture characterised by its strong emphasis on the vertical elements and its linear design.
£6,000 was given to the out parish of St Philip's with a further £2,200 raised by the laymen. This and other sources brought the total cost of the build to £9,020 19s. 4d. The foundation stone was laid on 22 September 1829, by the Lord Mayor John Cave and the church took 26 months to complete.
During this time, the 1831 Bristol riots took place across the city as a response to opposition of the Reform Act. The incumbent Bishop R. Gray is a very vocal opponent of the act which will give a wider range of poor and uneducated people the right to vote. As a result his palace was burned to the ground and Trinity, a symbol of wealth and opulence in a poverty-stricken area, narrowly escaped the same fate. The riots lasted three days during which a number of people died and an even greater number imbibed vast quantities of alcohol. The uprising came to a head in Queen Square, Bristol when the military charged the drunken rioters.
With construction completed, on 17 February 1832 construction the consecration ceremony took place by the Bishop of Bristol. Also in attendance were the Lord Mayor Daniel Stanton, Alderman Hilhouse and the Sheriff Mr Lax. Although the church is deemed to have a "…chaste and simple beauty...", more importantly it will add significantly to "the improvements which may be expected to result in the morals and conduct of the humbler classes of that neighbourhood...".
Subsequent building works were carried out on the building circa 1882 by John Bevan and in 1905 by William Venn Gough.
The church has two octagonal bell towers with open turrets on the west face of the building. The towers sit on either side of the main entrance and the west window. During a period when the building sat empty, the bells were removed and either sold for scrap or to another church. The original bells and fittings were replaced with new ones in April 1927. The work was carried out by local firm Llewellins & James Ltd of Castle Green. It cost £47 10s for the bells and labour although an additional £3 10s was incurred when the workmen realised that they had to remove the floor of the towers to get the new bells in.
The original bells and fittings were replaced with new ones in April 1927. The work was carried out by local firm Llewellins & James Ltd of Castle Green. It cost £47 10s for bells and labour although an additional £3 10s was incurred when the workmen realised that they had to remove the floor of the towers to get the new bells in.