News / Bedminster Down
New name for community-owned venue
On The Hill is the new name for the community-owned venue formerly known as Zion.
Staff and trustees working at the former chapel in Bedminster Down hope the change to On The Hill will “avoid confusion about who and what they are”.
The aim is for the new name “to better reflect the space and remove ongoing confusion about its identity” particularly its religious connotations and Zionism.
It is hoped that the new name will attract more people to the venue to help it become financially sustainable and be able to self-fund even more for the south Bristol community.
The space on Bishopsworth Road will continue to offer a daytime cafe, meet-up sessions, evening classes, events and entertainment, weddings, and reduced rate office and meeting spaces for local residents.
On The Hill centre manager, Emma Moore, said: “We found that some people thought that we were still a church.
“To be fair, we are church shaped and have a religious name, so it’s not a huge leap to make.
“We also got questions about Zionism and I was spending more time explaining what we weren’t, instead of talking about the amazing stuff that happens here.”
Centre manager Emma Moore said the former Zion name “was an unintentional barrier for people coming in or engaging with us and so from a business point of view we needed to change it” – photo: On The Hill
On The Hill director, Trina Shane, said: “We had a really positive response from the community shareholders with a name change.
“As the majority of them live in the BS13 area, it was important that they were behind the name change.”
Emma added: “We work with the community as well as being part of it.
“Every coffee and brunch sold, every ticket bought, and every hire of the space goes directly towards keeping the building open to all.”
Main photo: On The Hill
Read next: South Bristol hub becomes community-owned after crowdfunding campaign
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