Building » Bristol (Henbury) – St Antony

Bristol (Henbury) – St Antony

Keinton Walk, Henbury, Bristol BS10

A very functional post-war design, not of architectural or historic interest but containing some imported furnishings of note. 

The church was built on land purchased from the City Corporation, to serve a new housing estate. The architects Whitmarsh-Everiss & Smithies produced plans for a large square church roughly on the site of the present presbytery and with a detached campanile, but in the event ambitions had to be downscaled and they designed a very functional prefabricated structure, made and put up in thirteen weeks by F. Pratten & Co. of Midsomer Norton. This opened on Easter Sunday, 1955. At first the church doubled as a hall, with the sanctuary curtained off. A separate hall was added slightly later, and another in the 1970s. The present presbytery was built in the 1960s. In the 1970s a stone narthex was added to the church and pews were brought here from St Joseph’s Home, Cotham, along with a confessional from the pro-Cathedral and a stained glass roundel of the Crucifixion from the old church of St Teresa, Filton. Today the church is served from Westbury-on-Trym (q.v.), and the presbytery is let.

Description

The church is a simple prefabricated wooden structure of the 1950s, with a corrugated asbestos roof. A reconstituted stone narthex was added in the 1970s. The chief interest of the building lies in the imported furnishings, listed above. 

Heritage Details

Architect: Whitmarsh-Everiss & Smithies

Original Date: 1955

Conservation Area: No

Listed Grade: Not Listed