What are your memories of St George's Bristol?

ST GEORGE'S Bristol, the city's internationally renowned concert venue, is edging ever closer to its 200th birthday.

And while many Bristolians may know St George's on Great George Street as a live music venue, there are probably others who can recall its much longer life as one of the city's finest churches.

Where now the likes of Elvis Costello, Philip Glass and Julian Lloyd Webber perform, there once rang out the sound of hymns, a pipe organ and sacred scripture.

And now staff at the venue want members of the public to submit memories of the building so they can start to build up a huge archive.

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Built in the early 1820s, the church of St George Brandon Hill (originally a chapel of ease for the Cathedral) was the first of the "Waterloo" churches.

It was funded by a Government scheme launched in 1818 to keep the populace in pews at a time when many were turning their backs on the church in the wake of the war with Napoleon's France.

The newly founded suburbs of Park Street and Berkeley Square formed the basis of the congregation, which flourished through to the church's de-consecration in the late 1970s.

While music rang out soon after, thanks to the forming of the St George's Music Trust, it wasn't until 1987 that a concert stage was built and professional facilities installed – the beginnings of St George's Bristol as it is known and loved today.

Well-known for its superb acoustics, the venue has attracted many big names over the years.

Staff have begun building an archive and would now love to hear from anyone who attended St George's when it was a church, or perhaps early concerts.

Maybe you were married there, or you have a special memory of a great music experience.

Stories, photographs, documents, all would be welcome.

Spokesman Michael Beek said: "We're custodians of a truly special building with a long and varied history.

"And as we embrace its future we want to make sure its past is treasured and archived as well so that the full story of St George's can be told and cherished, especially with such a big birthday not too far around the corner."

If you have something to share, however insignificant you think it might be, please contact Michael Beek at m.beek@stgeorgesbristol.co.uk or write to St George's Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol BS1 5RR.