Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist, Royal Leamington Spa

Church, built 1877–8, with the north-east entrance dated 1877. Designed by architect John Cundall of Leamington. The building is constructed of pinkish-brown brick laid in Flemish bond with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It is designed in the Gothic Revival style, specifically Early English in character.

The plan comprises a six-bay nave with clerestory and aisles, a four-stage north-east tower with spire, a south transept, a single-bay apsidal chancel with a vestry to the south, and a round-ended Lady Chapel to the north.

Exterior features include a chamfered plinth and clasping buttresses to the angles, with slender buttresses rising to the clerestory. The north and south porches are positioned at the west end of the nave. The main entrance is through the north porch, which has slender columns with foliate capitals supporting two orders of arches with hollow and roll moulding. Above this is a blind arcade with a central niche containing a carving of Christ the Good Shepherd. The porch contains a plank door with a double-chamfered pointed arch. The south porch has a pointed arch with chamfered jambs and hollow and roll moulding to the head, with a pointed plank door and a two-light window featuring bar tracery within.

The west end is divided into stages: the first stage has a continuous chamfered sill band and four lancet windows; the second stage has three stepped lancets with a decorative band to the gable and copings. The aisles on both sides feature a continuous sill band, pairs of lancet windows to each bay with roll-moulded surrounds, and a continuous impost band. The clerestory, identical on both north and south sides, has a continuous sill band, three stepped lancets to each bay, and a brattished eaves band. A pinnacle crowns the west end.

The tower is buttressed with off-sets rising almost to full height and has a stair turret at its north-east corner. The first stage contains a plank door on the north side within a pointed-arched surround with a continuous hoodmould and impost band. The second stage has a two-light window with bar tracery and the hoodmould continues as an impost band. The third stage features a blind arcade with two slit windows and a band, followed by two-light belfry windows with bar tracery, a band with blind arcade, and a chamfered band with gargoyles. The broach spire has pinnacles to each corner and two further two-light gabled belfry windows.

The south transept displays a three-light window with bar tracery. The vestry has three trefoil-headed lights. The Lady Chapel has lancet windows, whilst the chancel contains a three-light window with bar tracery and a blind bay. The apse has pairs of lancets and three stepped lancets to the east end.

Interior surfaces are finished in brick. The nave features a six-bay arcade of alternating octagonal and cylindrical columns with triple-chamfered pointed arches featuring roll and hollow moulding. Aisle windows have roll-moulded surrounds. Slender piers support chamfered pointed arches to the clerestory windows, with brattished cornices. The nave has a coved wagon roof. A tall double-chamfered chancel arch with a slender column and three orders of arches with roll moulding separates the nave from the chancel.

Stained glass windows in the chancel and aisles date from 1884–9, including a memorial window to John Cundall, the architect, in the north aisle. The chancel contains a painted panel depicting the Baptism, with a sanctuary ensemble including an elaborate reredos and painted wall frieze, all dating from around 1900. The chancel floor is laid with Minton tiles, and the chancel has a canted ceiled panelled roof.