Church Of St John The Evangelist, Including Gate Piers, Gates And Boundary Walls

Church of St John the Evangelist

An Anglican church built in 1888 to designs by Martin and Chamberlain, located on St John's Road and Shakespeare Road in Sparkhill. The building is constructed of red brick with terracotta and stone dressings, with a plain tile roof. It replaced a temporary iron church erected on the same site in 1878.

The church follows a cruciform plan without aisles. The slender, buttressed west tower features a stair turret and stone spire, with a porch to the south elevation consisting of a moulded brick pointed arch and stone trefoil to the gable. To the left of the tower is a west end gable elevation with steeply pitched roof; the ground floor projects forward with a gable end west porch featuring a pointed moulded brick arch. The north and south elevations are formed by the transepts, each with a porch to its west face. The nave is lit by alternating pairs of windows with moulded brick transoms and gable end three-light windows with trefoils to the apex. The roof includes two gablets containing three lights and medallions. To the east of the transepts are two gable end three-light windows. The apsidal east end has three projecting gabled windows of two lights with cinquefoil above. A brick narthex joins the east of the church via a single-storey link.

The interior opens from a west end storm porch to remodelled west bays; the nave is accessed through a door inserted in a partition wall. The broad nave is constructed with iron pointed arches featuring dog tooth detailing, which intersect at the crossing. Between the iron arches and the roof apex are five pointed arch openings with circular openings between them. The arches are supported on short cluster piers with foliate capitals. The nave floor is wood block, while the chancel floor is laid with encaustic tiles. The sanctuary contains encaustic and mosaic tiles, including a prominent mosaic of an eagle holding a book, representing St John the Evangelist. The altar and communion rail were added in 1918. The polygonal apse has a timber roof with segmental braces decorated with floral motifs. The east end features a Caen stone and alabaster reredos, and three stained glass windows depicting the Transfiguration, Crucifixion, and Ascension, created by local artist B. L. Warren and inserted in 1914–15. Warren also created a further south wall window depicting the Garden of Gethsemane, installed in 1947. The windows include portraits of congregation members. A First World War memorial on the north chancel comprises an oak chancel screen, reputedly made by The Bromsgrove Guild in 1919. The stone font was transferred from the redundant Emmanuel Church. The tower contains a 13th-century bell from Ullenhall, Warwickshire.

The church is surrounded by brick gate piers with heavily moulded stone caps and dwarf brick boundary walls. The wrought iron gates are decorated with an emblem of a white cross within a red border.

Historical development includes the addition of a vestry in 1895 and the addition of the spire in 1905, erected in memory of George Timm. In 1894, Sparkhill became a parish. In 1969, the west end was remodelled to provide toilets, a kitchen, and ground floor and first floor meeting rooms.