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St. Ambrose Church

St. Ambrose Church is located at Cypress Street, St. Michael in Bridgetown, in the capital city of Barbados. It was the brain child of the Reverend Joseph S. Mayers when he first arrived on the island and realized that there was a definite need for another church in the city environs as a result of the rapidly expanding Barbadian population.  

 

To this end, the church's construction was completed in 1857 and it was consecrated on January 1st, 1858. The brothers Thomas and Peter Rebbitt donated the land on which the church was built. John Inniss designed the St. Ambrose Church while the stone for the building was provided by the owner of Clapham Plantation in Barbados. The church was financed mainly from private donations, loans and grants from the legislature.

 

This church's diminutive façade features all of the traditional elements found in the earlier Coleridge Chapels in Barbados. It has a belfry, pinnacles, the lancet, triangular and bullseye windows and crenellations on the verges of the roof. Additionally, the church's design also allows for two extra windows; one a Georgian rectangle with curved arched lintel and the other resembling the English perpendicular window.

 

This little church located in the heart of metropolitan Barbados does present as an 'extraordinary conglomeration' of styles which does pose some design problems, these however, were indeed handled quite well by the church’s designer.

 

This quaint little church set among the side streets and back alleys of Bridgetown can indeed be described as Barbados' little diamond in the rough.