It was not built without some difficulty. Local Congregationalists had met up in 1825 – in what was then a fairly sparsely-populated area of the city – to try to establish a permanent place of worship. Unfortunately, no suitable land could be found until a member of the Tabernacle Church, and later a deacon at the Chapel, William Williams, started a business nearby and made some available.
Finance was always a problem, but the Quaker Richard Ash, who had also helped the Highbury Chapel congregation, gifted £500 (and later, another £750) and soon, with extra help from an anonymous “aged Christian” who donated £200, the Congregationalists had £2,000 – almost enough to start building work. The church, which in the end cost double that amount, opened in 1855 and thrived throughout Victorian times.
In 1968, after having been declared redundant by the Congregationalists (who had found their numbers so depleted that they had united with two other church congregations and moved to Cotham Grove Baptist Church) the chapel was rededicated to Our Lady of Ostrobrama – a church with its own priest serving the Polish Roman Catholics living in the city.
https://www.jigidi.com/jigsaw-puzzle/xcosrove/20260117-152536/
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