| St George | |
|---|---|
| Stgeorgeschapel.jpg | |
|
Location within Bristol
|
|
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| Town or city | Bristol |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | |
| Construction started | 1821 |
| Completed | 1823 |
St George's is a church in the Clifton area of Bristol, England.
It was built between 1821 and 1823 by Sir Robert Smirke in a Greek Revival style[1]. St George's was a "Waterloo church"— and the only one in Bristol to receive government money from the first grant under the Church Building Act of 1818.
It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building.[2]
Contents |
In 1976 St George's Music Trust was formed and in succeeding years they established the church as a major concert venue, initially known as St George's, Brandon Hill. The main body of the church seats an audience of 562 and the crypt has been transformed into a bar and recording studios which are regularly used by the BBC.[3]
In 1999, the venue underwent extensive renovations to make it suitable as a full-time concert venue, which included replacing the auditorium pews with padded chairs, making the pews in the gallery more comfortable for concert seating, creating a box office and removing the font which was donated to the Church of St Mary on the Quay. It re-opened in October 1999 with its new name St George's Bristol.[4]
St George's Bristol is particularly known for its provision of classical, jazz, folk, world music and opera and stages more than 200 events every year, regularly attracting artists of international note including Angela Hewitt, Nicola Benedetti, Mark Padmore and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Spring/Summer of 2010[5] and Viktoria Mullova, Stephen Hough, Paul Lewis, Christian Blackshaw, Janis Ian, Abdullah Ibrahim and Marc Almond in Autumn 2011,[6][7] as well as regular performances by local professional groups such as the Bristol Ensemble and amateur orchestras and choirs.