The church was built between 1829 and 1832 by Thomas Rickman and Henry Hutchinson,[7] two architects from Birmingham, who also designed the piers, perimeter walls and railings which are also listed.

The incumbent Bishop R. Gray is a very vocal opponent of the act which will give a wider range of poor and uneducated people the right to vote.

As a result his palace was burned to the ground and Trinity, a symbol of wealth and opulence in a poverty-stricken area, narrowly escaped the same fate.

Although the church is deemed to have a "…chaste and simple beauty...", more importantly it will add significantly to "the improvements which may be expected to result in the morals and conduct of the humbler classes of that neighbourhood...".

Local authorities felt the way to address the problem was to engage the spiralling population in Christian worship, and the Holy Trinity Church was built.

Pullin would have hanged had it not been for the intervention of more than 7,000 individuals petitioning for mercy on his behalf, on the grounds that he was a young man of good nature who had come to this terrible act due to circumstance.

[17] A marble memorial tablet that once resided in the Holy Trinity Church can now be found in the foyer of Old Market's Trinity Road police station, which reads: In memory of Richard Hill, police constable of this city, who was murdered whilst in the execution of his duty in Gloucester Lane, 24 April 1869, aged 31 years, and was interred in Arnos Vale Cemetery.

The archive also includes records of the incumbent, vestry, parochial church council, churchwardens, charities, Easton Christian Family Centre, schools and societies plus photographs.

[23] Local leaders looking to ease tensions agreed for Trinity to be deconsecrated and given to the public, for use as a community centre, with a focus on activities for young people.

On 21 December 1977 an Order in Council came into operation from The Church Commissioners, allowing Holy Trinity building and its land to be used as a community centre.

[21] The group take over management and 1 July 1978, the same day as St Paul's Festival, now called Carnival, Trinity Community Centre was opened to the public.

These early years as a community centre and music venue were set against a backdrop of rising local tensions, culminating in the 1981 St. Pauls riot.

During the early part of the 1980s, the Centre provided a much-needed outlet for local youth culture, hosting nights of dub and reggae from the likes of Jah Shaka and Quaker City, and playing host to some of the biggest domestic and international music stars of the time, notably from the punk and new wave genres, such as U2,[25] Crass, The Cramps, Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division and New Order alongside local favourites such as The Stingrays and Disorder.

The group had ambitions to renovate the Centre and in 1977 architect George Ferguson produces a design showing plans to split the venue into two levels.

[25] He believed they could turn their losses around but needed to overcome the drawbacks, such as the gravestones outside the road widening and the state of the building, which were thought responsible for people's reluctance to use the place.

Allegations that de Freitas had embezzled funds and fled to Jamaica were rife, though it eventually transpired that he was living with his sister in Clevedon, having sold his own house to invest in a cafe for the centre, which he had hoped would help to pay off Trinity's debts.

[26] The freehold was subsequently purchased by Bristol City Council on 6 June 1985, which embarked on plans to convert Trinity into a community centre for keep fit, music & dancing, meeting and function rooms.

The new tenants and a dedicated team of volunteers began a further round of development and renovations, including the installation of the sprung wooden floor downstairs and new railings[21] The Centre reopened on 23 January 1993, and under this new management Trinity again gained international fame as an important landmark in the globally exported Bristol Sound, prominent during this era, playing host to local acts such as Roni Size, Smith & Mighty and Portishead.

Shifting funds away from community centres towards Millennium Projects coupled with a series of financial problems, echoing those which led to the demise of the previous group, Trinity was forced to close once again in 2000.