Tucked within Portland Square in the St Paul’s area of Bristol, Circomedia occupies one of the city’s most architecturally striking buildings – the former St Paul’s Church, a Grade I listed structure managed by the Churches Conservation Trust. The postcode is BS2 8SJ, placing it in the inner city, a short distance from the centre of Bristol and within easy reach of the surrounding neighbourhoods of St Paul’s, Stokes Croft, and Montpelier. The building sits within Portland Square, a Georgian square that forms one of Bristol’s more elegant surviving examples of late 18th-century urban planning.
A Circus School in a Church
Circomedia is a professional school and performance venue dedicated to contemporary circus and physical theatre. The choice of a former church as its home is fitting in its own way – the vast interior, with its high ceilings and open floor space, provides the kind of room that aerial work and large-scale physical performance genuinely requires. The building’s two floors accommodate teaching, rehearsal, and public performances, and the space has been adapted to meet the practical demands of circus training while preserving much of the original architecture. The operator is Circomedia itself, and the venue is open to visitors and audience members attending productions and events.
Accessibility and Visiting
The venue is wheelchair accessible, with a portable wheelchair ramp available to assist visitors with mobility requirements. This makes the building usable for a broad range of audiences, which matters for a performance space embedded in a diverse inner-city neighbourhood. For those planning a visit, the official website at circomedia.com carries up-to-date information on performances, courses, and open events. Portland Square is well connected to the rest of Bristol by public transport, and the surrounding streets of St Paul’s are walkable from Bristol city centre in around 15 to 20 minutes.
The Building’s History
The church building at the heart of the site has a long history in Bristol. St Paul’s Church on Portland Square dates from the late 18th century and is among the more significant ecclesiastical buildings in the city. Its Grade I listing reflects its architectural and historic importance, and its current use by Circomedia represents a practical second life for a building that might otherwise have sat empty or fallen into decline. The Churches Conservation Trust, which owns the structure, works to preserve historic churches across England, and this particular example in Bristol has found a purpose that keeps it active, maintained, and connected to the local community. The combination of Georgian architecture and contemporary circus arts makes the venue genuinely unusual within Bristol’s cultural landscape and worth a visit in its own right, quite apart from any scheduled performance.