St Peter’s church opens its (virtual) doors

For over 800 years, St Peter’s Church in Castle Park has stood amongst the bustle of this busy Bristol thoroughfare. Turned to ruins and made roofless by incendiary bombs of the Blitz in 1940, it sadly closed its doors and instead became a place of memorial to the lives lost during the war. But now, 80 years later, we are finally able to venture inside once more, with a little help from some modern-day technology.

Russ Leith, a retired boatbuilder, is co-founder of the Facebook group Friends of Castle Park, which he began two years ago with friend Fraser Bridgeford. They wanted to give the park’s users a platform to share ideas and concerns. Russ is also the activities co-ordinator for the group, organising volunteer meet-ups for litter picking, tending the flower beds and vegetable patches, maintaining information boards, and looking after another ancient site, St Edith’s Well, also near the church.

St Edith’s Well in Castle Park is looked after by Friends of Castle Park volunteers, along with St Peter’s Church. Photo by Katarzyna Sowinska

The group recently gained two new members, Joe Hyett and Mark Godfrey, who were particularly interested in the history of the park and the church. They also both happen to be studying Master’s degrees in architecture at UWE Bristol. Together with Russ, they developed an idea for a 3D virtual tour of the inside of the church.

“I see first-hand how popular the church is every time I work in the Physic Garden,” Russ says. “There are always people interested in getting a closer look. So for all of those who want to see inside St Peter’s church, but can’t because of restricted access, I thought Joe and Mark’s creation was the ideal opportunity to see it exactly as it looks today.”

Russ Leith is one of the few people in Bristol regularly allowed inside St Peter’s Church. Photo by Julia Victor

The two students were given Castle Park as a ‘theoretical’ project site, as part of their course’s module on conservation. “We initially wanted to scan the existing condition of St Peter’s church to help us accurately embed the church within our projects,” explains Joe.

He invested in a Matterport Pro2 3D camera, which takes 360 degree photographs, and through a process of photogrammetry and software, the image is then combined to form a virtual model. Russ was able to give the students access to the church, allowing them to photograph the inside. The end result is a virtual 3D tour, allowing the public to see beyond the exterior mottled iron gateways and windows.

“A positive outcome from this exercise is the ability to virtually walk around St Peter’s church,” Joe says. “The response and feedback we have received has been fantastic, with a lot of people appreciating the insight into an area which has been typically restricted. Being able to give people that insight has been great as it has given people more appreciation for the place.”

St Peter’s church has a rare circular window, which can be seen from inside thanks to the 3D model created by two UWE students. Photo by Julia Victor

The success of this experimental project has inspired Joe and Mark to search for other sites in Bristol that could be turned into similar virtual experiences.

Russ hopes the virtual tour will encourage more active interest in the site and group. He aims to boost numbers to at least 1,000 within the year, “so that the weight of the membership can have a meaningful influence on important park issues and help it become one of Bristol’s flagship parks”.

With foundations that can be traced back to 1106, Grade II*-listed St Peter’s is believed to have been the site of Bristol’s first church.  However, it is also on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, due to the condition of its internal stonework which can now be seen in the virtual tour, but was never meant to be exposed to the weather.

Some areas of the closed-off church have only been seen by a handful of people since it was turned to ruins during the Bristol Blitz in 1940. Photo by Julia Victor

The church is now de-consecrated and is under the responsibility of Bristol City Council, who are involved with ongoing repairs to its damaged stonework and making the site safe. Emergency work had been carried out in 2019 to secure high-level masonry but much of the church floor is still collapsing into the crypt below, requiring attention. Work on the church had been due to continue this year but has stalled due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Russ hopes that in the future, the church will have a new lighting system to enable it to be lit up during night hours and could become a space for art exhibitions and perhaps even conduct weddings again, whilst still remaining as a monument to that fateful night in November 1940.

To view the virtual tour and learn more about Castle Park, visit www.facebook.com/groups/friendscastlepark

Main image by Katarzyna Sowinska

Read more: Remembering 80 years since the start of the Bristol Blitz