We are now the owners of the former Bible Christian Chapel, known as St Peter’s Street. This became possible when a generous benefactor made a substantial loan to enable us to buy it. We heard in November they have decided to gift £200,000 of that loan, leaving on  £46,000 for us to repay. You can support the studios,  through this link.

The Plan

Listed Building Consent has been given to re-purpose this important building as 11 affordable studios for local craft and art workers. Alongside this, we want the wider community to continue to have access to the building and have greater understanding of its heritage and relevance to people, past and present.

Our current list of people in need of a studio fall into two broad categories, people currently working from home who are economically and artistically held back by lack of space and isolation, and those who need additional space to expand their activity.We are  currently shaping the conversion project with 11 in mind along with a reserve list of 5. The crafts covered are print making, jewellery, woodworking, film making, painting.

Because the chapel was at the heart of life in this part of St Ives, it holds an important place in people’s sense of belonging and identity. It has become apparent how much people do love this building when they see it and how pleased they are it is still in community hands. This includes many visitors, a good number who come on holiday here every year, have done so over many years and sometimes through two or three generations of their family. This has encouraged us to plan for wider public access as a secondary purpose, which will use the pulpit and organ area for talks and so on, and the balcony for the audience. This won’t disturb the studios area.

You can see the full application through this link   Click Search for a Planning Application. then, our application number is PA25/09084.

Project Progress

The project is in its final development phase. Three grants from The Architectural Heritage Fund and one from The Pilgrim Trust have been crucial to getting the project off the ground.   When it comes to finance we have three things to achieve. One is to find capital funding for builders to turn the plans into reality – about £500,000. We have grant applications in with 4 potential  funders.  The second element is money to cover the costs of running the building in the meantime (insurance, power, maintenance etc) – an estimated £6,000 per annum. The third is the repayment of the £46,000 loan from the benefactor.  We are working on the Crowdfunder now, so watch out for it soon! 

We have postcards and greetings cards  for sale. These will feature renowned St Ives artist Bryan Pearce’s delightful painting of the chapel. The artist’s estate has generously given permission for us to use the image: we are sure you will love it when you see it! We are already using the image on our promotional bookmark.

You can buy these at St Peters Street which is open on Fridays between 12Noon and 2pm and on Sundays between 2pm and 4pm.

In the meantime the building isn’t lying empty and unused. ‘Pandemonium Projects’ is a start-up business collecting peelings from local restaurants and turning them into natural dyes for clothing. It is so good to have given them a place to start in our School Room. We have held several fundraising local history talks and other events in the  building which have   worked well as we want to continue to give opportunities for wider public access in that way when the chapel has been converted.

The Building
The former Bible Christian Church on St Peter’s Street is a Grade 2 listed building.  It was originally known as Chapel Street and was a Wesleyan chapel – one of two in the main St Ives town serving the upper richer and lower poorer areas of the port. But it was not successful and sold to the Bible Christian congregation in 1858.

The Bible Christians came into being in the town in 1829 and used various lofts for meetings while they tried to obtain land to build a chapel. It was the purchase of the St Peter’s Street Chapel from the Wesleyans in 1858 which brought that search to an end.

The Bible Christians enlarged it during the rest of the 19th century, but over the years fortunes fluctuated with wealth in money and numbers and the Chapel eventually came into the full Methodist fold – still known as the Bible Christian or St Peters Street locally.

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