The Knights Templar built this medieval Bristol church, gutted in the Blitz, its bell tower still leaning visibly off true
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Look up at the bell tower here and you’ll see it leans, about four degrees off vertical — the ground beneath is soft alluvial clay, and the tower’s base was already tilting by the time masons finished the upper stage in the 1450s. Temple Church is the roofless, wall-only remains of a medieval church that started life in the 12th century as a round building put up by the Knights Templar, the military order that protected pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem.
After the Templars were disbanded in the 1310s, the Knights Hospitaller took over the site and rebuilt the round church as a much larger rectangular one, work part-funded by the wealth of Bristol’s medieval cloth weavers. German bombing gutted the building in the Bristol Blitz of November 1940, leaving the walls and that leaning tower standing open to the sky.
The ruin opens seasonally and is free to visit, with the old churchyard beside it laid out as a public garden. Bristol Temple Meads Station is a few minutes’ walk away, and the partial remains of Bristol Castle are a short walk north.
