Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a Grade I listed parish church located on Westgate Road in Newcastle upon Tyne. It primarily dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, with the chancel largely rebuilt in 1848. The church is constructed of sandstone with ashlar dressings and features a Welsh slate roof. It has a cruciform shape with aisles that embrace a west tower, a south porch, and a north transept with a west aisle.

The three-stage tower includes a three-light window, a smaller window above, and bar tracery in the two-light belfry openings, all topped by a battlemented parapet with corner pinnacles and octagonal clasping buttresses. The gabled porch features a moulded two-centred arch. The aisle windows are segmental-headed three-light with perpendicular tracery, while the transepts, clerestory, and chancel have elliptical-headed four-light windows. The nave has a parapet.

Inside, the church has plaster with ashlar dressings and a low-pitched roof. The four-bay arcades consist of double-chamfered arches that die without capitals into octagonal piers. A continuous hood-mould runs along the north side, adorned with heraldic shields. The north transept features a two-bay arcade with an octagonal pier and a moulded capital. The tower arch is high and single-chamfered, with side arches that are four-centred, and a ribbed vault covers the baptistry. The chancel arch has been restored, and the north chancel wall retains the upper part of a small round-headed window. Additionally, there is a 17th-century octagonal stone font with shields on its sides, topped with a wooden cover in a 15th-century style.