Summary
Baptist Church with ancillary accommodation, 1967-1969, to the designs of Ronald H Sims, of Geens, Cross and Sims, Architects in Association, Bournemouth.
The shop units on the ground floor, and the linked first and second floor internal accommodation that extends into 90-94 Broadmead, are not included in the listing.
Reasons for Designation
Broadmead Baptist Church is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a striking and distinctive principal elevation with depth and complexity, the composition of which reflects internal functions and hierarchy, and which incorporates bold, sculptural and symbolic forms;
* for the inventive treatment of materials, particularly the emphatic use of concrete which exhibits the extremes of its textural qualities, and glazing to create solid and transparent planes;
* rationally configured internally, with rooms arranged around a central stair and wide, deep landings, with an energy and dynamism resulting from diagonally-set, deeply coffered ceilings and lift tower, and the continuity of spaces, only separated by light screen walls;
* the sanctuary, a sublime space in which the slender structure of the building is expressed and juxtaposed with the robust, angular galleries and the undulating forms of the roof, and where glazing takes varied forms to dramatic effect;
* high quality materials, fixtures and fittings, including the terrazzo baptistery, and most notably, the sculptural screen known as the Cloud of Witnesses;
* highly imaginative in terms of its planning on a confined urban plot, with a very unusual configuration, where the church stands on the upper floors above lettable retail units;
* an excellent example of a church designed by Ronald H Sims.
Historic interest:
* Broadmead is the mother church for the Baptist movement in Bristol, and the site has been used for worship since the C17, with the current church incorporating a collection of plaques and glass from the previous three iterations of the building.
History
Broadmead Baptist Church is the mother church for Baptists in Bristol, founded in 1640. Worship took place in one of the founder’s homes until 1670 when a ‘Great Room’ was made by uniting spaces above a row of shops on Union Street. This was replaced by a purpose-built meeting house in 1695, that was enlarged in 1764-5 but rebuilt in 1876-7 by Alfred Harford. The area was badly damaged in the Blitz, though the church survived relatively unscathed. Redevelopment, however, of the wider area as the Broadmead shopping centre led to its replacement. Plans for its successor building in which the church was set at first floor above shops recalled the original C17 arrangement. While consent was granted in 1962, the old chapel continued in use (and was identified as a building of historic interest in the 1966 City Centre Policy Report) until January 1967, after which it was demolished; the large three manual organ, built in 1904 by Norman and Beard, and four stained glass panels were transferred to the new church, which was dedicated in October 1969.
Ronald H Sims (1923-1999) began development of his design for the Baptist Church while practicing independently; he subsequently went into partnership as Geens, Cross and Sims "Architects in Association", based in Bournemouth. Sims is known to have designed two other churches in Bournemouth: Wallisdown Methodist Church, 1954; and Punshon Memorial Methodist Church, 1958, demolished in 2015. He also worked on church restorations and extensions, and was awarded the Lambeth Degree posthumously, in 2004, for his contributions to church architecture over four decades.
The original design included a fleche: a GRP-clad timber spirelet marking the main entrance. This has been removed. A canopy along the Union Street façade has also been removed, and the canopy above the entrance has been re-clad. The meeting room known as the Undercroft was created within the footprint of the building in the 1970s; plans show the location of a ‘future chapel’.
Details
Baptist Church with ancillary accommodation, 1967-1969, in a Brutalist style by Ronald H Sims, of Geens, Cross and Sims of Bournemouth.
MATERIALS: a reinforced concrete-framed building with front elevation clad in-situ reinforced concrete panels with in-situ bush-hammered and ribbed surface. GRP cladding to roof fascias. Profilit constructional glazing and other metal-framed glazing. Rear elevation in sand-faced Fletton brickwork in stretcher bond, soldier course sills and concrete lintels.
PLAN: rectangular footprint, roughly north-south along Union Street. At ground floor, shop units (excluded from the listing), main entrance and lobby, from which the stair hall provides access to the upper floors. A detached lift tower within the hall is set at 45 degrees. At first floor, the church occupies the double-height space to the south of the stair hall. North of the stair hall are two storeys containing hall and meeting rooms. Offices, vestries, ancillary accommodation and service rooms are arranged along the east side of the building, above which there is a caretaker’s flat. Fire escape stairs at either end.
EXTERIOR: principal elevation to Union Street, of three storeys with the structural frame expressed as bay divisions, sometimes using exposed and projecting vertical uprights, elsewhere through glazing and roofline details. The off-centre bay containing the main entrance (and stair hall behind) marks the division between the church in the south end of the building and ancillary accommodation to the north. Above the entrance the bay is defined by two pairs of concrete fins clasping timber posts that remain from the original fleche or spire that rose above the roofline. Glazed double doors. The entrance canopy, resting on a pair of projecting beam ends, now has C21 timber cladding. The continuation of this canopy above the rest of the elevation has been removed. The ground floor either side of the entrance has shop fronts, replacements of the originals. The length of the first floor has a continuous band of Profilit glazing with narrow vertical panes, lighting the ground floor of the church (south) and hall (north) but recessed above the entrance to light the staircase. The top storey has panels of in-situ concrete with a bush-hammered finish of vertical ribs; this is blind on the elevation to the church where it forms the back of the gallery but is interrupted by windows for the meeting rooms in the north end. The church has a clerestory supporting the shallow V-section roof beams, whose ends are expressed as series of bold canopies, stepping up and down above each bay. The north end of the building has a more staid arrangement with the beam ends expressed as flat canopies above each of the three main bays.
INTERIOR: the journey from the street entrance to the church was conceptually one of ascending from darkness into light. A lobby of mottled brown brick walls with raked joints and quarry tiled floors gives way to spray-plastered white walls and glazing on the upper floors. Timber is used throughout for screening openings, doors, and cladding.
Within the lobby the geometry of the grid layout is countered by a curved wall meeting the lift tower, set on an angle, and the splayed bottom steps of the stair. A canted recess has a bench and stepped brickwork.
To the rear a short stair leads to the Undercroft: a mezzanine-level extension of the 1970s within the frame of the main range; plans show that this was intended by Sims as the location of a ‘future chapel’. This room has a glazed screen wall, and narrow horizontal windows facing east.
Open well stair, the treads faced in white terrazzo. Balustrade of tubular steel with applied oak panels. Thick rope handrail. Wide landings on the first and second floors for circulation and informal seating, with access to the spaces either side. Ceilings of deeply coffered grids set on the diagonal. Lights were originally the coffers but have been replaced by suspended spotlights. On the first floor historic plaques and tablets have been mounted on the walls.
The church (south) is separated from the first floor landing by a glazed screen wall. It is rectangular with the liturgical focus on the east wall, which recedes in steps and curves to a central baptismal pool, set within a dais, with a pulpit on the left. Angled steps rise to the dais, with the pool, which is sunken and has low terrazzo-clad edges, echoing the angles. Above is a screen, known as the ‘Cloud of Witnesses’ (Hebrews 12:1) has angled and curved fabric panels lined with vertical timber slats; it rises in stages from above the baptismal pool, widening to form a backdrop to the pulpit, with the top level lining the length of the west wall and turning the corner to the north wall. The screen projects and has a break forming an open shaft above the pool, where a wide timber cross is mounted on the wall. North and west galleries are enclosed by angled fronts with tubular steel handrails. The space below the west gallery is lit by the Profilit glazing of the exterior. Supporting the galleries are piers with cantilevered beams, the same piers on the west side also carrying the columns that support the transverse beams of the roof structure. These V-shaped beams step up and down, clad in boarding and linked by strips of transverse glazing. Chairs form the seating in the main floor. Upholstered timber pews beneath the west gallery and in the tiers of the galleries. Spotlights set in the roof beams are no longer functional; strip lighting has been suspended underneath. Four C19 stained glass panels are mounted in front of the glazing beneath the west gallery.
The large first floor hall to the north of the first floor landing has glazed double doors within a larger, glazed opening. Profilit glazing runs the length of the east wall, and has transom glazing above. Deeply coffered grid ceiling. Offices to the rear, accessed through veneered hollow timber doors. These have built in cupboards and matchboarded ceilings.
On the second floor is a large meeting room and kitchen, and a series of smaller meeting rooms and former vestry. The flat, contained with a fourth storey, is accessed from the east by a stair with balustrade similar in design to the main stair.
Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the shop units on the ground floor, and the linked first and second floor internal accommodation that extends into 90-94 Broadmead are not of special architectural or historic interest.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 10 September 2024 to correct the description
