People's Mission Hall

The People's Mission Hall, originally a Roman Catholic chapel, was completed in 1797 and subsequently altered in the 20th century, possibly by John Palmer. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with a slate roof. The hall has a large hipped roof set at an angle to the street, with a two-storey range following the street line. The street facade has five bays with replacement windows to former sashes at both levels, and a blind light in the fifth bay where the building narrows. A central pair of 20th-century doors are set within a stone doorcase featuring pilasters with splayed bases and Doric capitals, and a full entablature below a platband. A small cavetto cornice, blocking course, and parapet complete the exterior. The left return has four large sixteen-pane lights with segmental heads and heavy square sills; a raised light sits above a horizontal four-pane light at the front end. The right return is similar but set at an obtuse angle, lacking a bay corresponding with the front range. The plinth is rendered, and the cornice and parapet continue from the front. The interior was not inspected, but a previous listing described a flat ceiling with a deep cove, a gallery at the street end supported by Doric columns, and a north end featuring fluted Corinthian pilasters carrying an entablature without an architrave. The property is currently somewhat isolated, having been affected by bomb damage during the Baedeker Blitz of 1942. It served as Bath’s Roman Catholic church from 1786/7 until 1809, when the congregation relocated to the Old Theatre (now the Masonic Hall) in Orchard Street. This building replaced a previous chapel destroyed in the Anti-Papist Gordon Riots of 1780. A presbytery was located at 12 St James's Parade. The chapel was used by Baptists in the 1830s before becoming a mission chapel for St Paul’s church until 1936. From around 1947, the building was occupied by a breakaway group of the Salvation Army called the People’s Band Mission.