A CONSULTATION on the future of All Saints’, Corn Street, in Bristol — believed to be the burial place of the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston — “has identified several potential future uses” for the historic building.
The Grade II listed Norman church has been closed to the public since 1984, but, until 2015, was used by the diocese of Bristol as an education and resource centre. The consultation was commissioned by the diocese in 2024.
The first stage, which engaged with members of Bristol’s African Caribbean heritage communities and other stakeholders, has been completed, a diocesan statement confirmed last week. No details were revealed, but “These proposals will be explored and developed further in the second phase of the consultation,” it said.
This process involved interviews, focus groups, artistic responses, visits to the building, and surveys to “gather opinions” on the best use of the building, the diocese said.
The church houses a memorial to Colston, who contributed financially to the construction of the tower in 1716. Colston was an English merchant, slave trader, and MP. As well as All Saints’, he also endowed schools, almshouses, hospitals, and other churches across Bristol, including the cathedral, St Mary Redcliffe, and Temple School. He was a member of the Society of Merchant Venturers, which contributed large sums to the reconstruction of the nave of Bristol Cathedral in the 1800s. He died in 1721.
In 2020, a statue of Colston was pulled down and thrown into the harbour by anti-racism protesters in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the United States (News, 12 June 2020). The moment triggered a nationwide review of church monuments to figures connected with the transatlantic slave trade.
The Acting Bishop of Bristol, the Bishop of Swindon, the Rt Revd Neil Warwick, said last week that the completion of the first stage of the consultation “marks an important step in listening, learning, and discerning the most appropriate way forward for the building”. He thanked the former Bishop of Bristol the Rt Revd Viv Faull for beginning this “vital” work, to which he and the diocese remained dedicated, he said.
To protect public safety, and because of the church’s location, the diocese is legally obliged to fix the roof: works that are due to begin in the early spring, and last for about six months. These, the diocese said, were “completely separate from the consultation, and will not influence the final decisions about the building’s future”.