St David, BEDMINSTER
Bristol
The church of St David's history is linked with that of St Paul, Southville. It was built as a mission church for the Beauly Road area of St Paul's parish in 1908, the mission having begun after this Beauley Road site was donated in 1891. The first services were held in a private house in 1893 but a hall in Raleigh Road at the foot of Hamilton Road was rented and services were transferred there. The mission church was built on the Beauly Road site, opposite the end of Raleigh Road to the designs of Messrs Scammell Son & Perkins. The foundation stone was laid on July 27th and the first service held in the completed building on November 2nd the same year. It is a simple red brick lancet chapel with stone dressings and banding, especially on the west facade and is six bays long with a western porch reached by steps. The builders donated the pulpit, and an organ was installed in 1910. It was pronounced free of debt in 1912 and was dedicated to St David in March 1913. It ceased to be a church before the second world war, and became St David's Hall, and later St Paul's Church Hall.
And so the history could have stopped there but following the destruction of St Paul's Church on Good Friday 1941, the building was used once more for services, presumably until the rebuilt St Paul's opened once more in March 1958. Again it reverted to church hall status, but following serious storm damage to St Paul's in 1990, once more the building was used for services until St Paul reopened again in 1991. As a reward for service, the bellcote was then removed, giving the mission church an odd appearance
And there St David's waited again, in case it was needed. Meanwhile a variety of community groups continued to meet in the church-that-was. However the hall became surplus to requirements and was sold. By May 2003 the building survived visually but is now converted into four flats.
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