UPCOMING works at a Bridport community centre have not stopped residents from enjoying themselves at the venue.

The Chapel in the Garden on East Street is set to receive some much-needed repairs and currently has scaffolding fronting the outside of the building in preparation for works to be carried out on the gallery windows, and leaking roof.

Recently an extremely popular Elton John Experience fundraising concert was hosted at the venue and even saw members of the team and audience members posing with the scaffolding after the show as a bit of fun.

The event saw audience members dancing in the aisles to the well-known numbers, along with refugees from Ukraine who had been offered complimentary tickets for the show.

Many of the audience donned a pair of funky glasses and feather boas and when Mark Stewart, Elton John impersonator, came to the much-loved duet Don’t Go Breaking My Heart he called on a member of the audience to be his Kiki Dee.

Margie Barbour, part of the fundraising team, said: “I was worried no one would be brave enough, and that I might have to volunteer, and I’m no singer.

"Luckily Vanessa Jessopp saved the day, stepped forward and was great; they sang together as if it had been rehearsed, but it hadn’t!

"She had a very well-deserved warm round of applause for both her courage and her talent.”

It took a while for the fundraising team at the chapel to raise the money to allow the works to be completed, but the plans are set to go ahead on the grade II listed building.

Glenda Willis, secretary to the Trustees, said: “The chapel was built by dissenting non-conformists in 1794, and still has fixed pews, a gallery and glorious gallery windows.

“Familiar local names; Colfox, Gundry; Hounsell were prominent in its inception.

“The spacious rooms at the back on Rax Lane were originally added for the Sunday and Grammar school, and are still much used as a community resource, hosting varied activities such as yoga, singing, counselling, self-help groups, learning and many more.”

 If you would like to know more or would like to make a donation to the works, visit: https://thechapelinthegarden.com/, phone: 07566 751752 or email: secretary.citg@gmail.com.