Nottingham

St Paul

Nottingham Archdeaconry

Nottingham South Deanery

Introduction

St Paul’s Church, George Street, Nottingham was opened in 1822, the first of several daughter churches of St Mary’s, High Pavement. At that time, the parish of St Mary’s extended over 2700 acres of the town, most of which was open farm land. The two churches were only one third of a mile apart, with St Paul’s serving as a chapel-of-ease to St Mary’s in a district where housing and factory development was taking place. Parish status was conferred in 1839.

The church was designed by William Wilkins in the classical Palladian style to accommodate a congregation of 1,365, but soon after opening the vicar complained about the number of empty pews and by 1851 the congregation had fallen to about 700 (including Sunday Scholars). With seven other Anglican churches and at least ten nonconformist churches and chapels all within less than one mile radius of St Paul’s this was not perhaps surprising.

The church was remodeled in 1894 which reduced the seating to 700. Over the next fifty years, as Nottingham expanded into the surrounding countryside, the number of houses and people living in the parish slowly diminished. Many of the houses were replaced by commercial buildings. Although three of the four George Street church buildings are extant, only one, the Methodist church, continues to serve its original purpose.

In 1924 St Paul’s was closed and it was demolished in 1925.

Particular thanks to Doug Fletcher for research on this entry