In the Regency period, most of Cheltenham’s fashionable churches and chapels were exclusively for the rich; in order to attend services there, you had to buy or rent a pew! Those who were too poor to do so had to cram into the overcrowded parish church of St Mary, which was far too small to accommodate the town’s growing population. To ease this problem, St Paul’s church was begun in 1827 as a ‘free church’ for the benefit of the working class people who lived in the poorer areas north of the High Street.
It may have been built for the poor but St Paul’s is a beautiful, exquisitely designed Regency church in a lovely spacious churchyard. It has a gorgeous Ionic portico with four large columns and is topped by a cupola tower. The façade is faced with Cotswold stone ashlar which glows deep gold in the sun, and only if you go around the sides and back will you see that the rest of the church is built from red brick, which was a necessary cost-cutting exercise. Its building was beset with delays and financial setbacks but it was completed in 1831.
St Paul’s was designed by a talented local architect called John Forbes, who also designed Pittville Pump Room, and the site was donated by Joseph Pitt (founder of Pittville) for a nominal sum of £20. John Forbes got into a spot of bother with his own property speculations and found himself in debt. He was caught trying to pass a forged banknote and was sentenced to two years’ hard labour in Gloucester Gaol, a scandal which ended his illustrious career and wasted a great talent.
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