Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist, Moulsham Street

This Grade II listed church was built in 1836–7 to serve the growing Anglican population of Chelmsford. The design was by J W Wild but executed locally by Stephen Webb. Originally it comprised only a nave and shallow chancel in the conventional style of the 1830s.

The building underwent successive enlargements throughout the 19th century. Joseph Clarke enlarged the chancel in 1851 and added transepts, chancel aisles, and a south vestry. In 1873–4, Frederic Chancellor designed a north choir vestry, and in 1882 he added a prominent west tower and an additional bay to the nave. Most recently, between 1996 and 2005, the west part of the nave was divided off and subdivided.

The church is constructed of white brick with limestone dressings and slate roofs. Its plan comprises a nave, chancel, south porch, south transept, double north transept, west tower, south vestry, and south chapel.

Externally, the core of the original building is evident in the nave (apart from the west bay), which features plain lancet windows linked by a stringcourse that extends over the windows as a hood. The most distinctive addition is the large west tower of 1882, which rises in three stages with angle buttresses. On the north side it has a circular stair turret with a conical cap. The Bath stone west portal is richly moulded with three orders of engaged shafts and bears a tympanum depicting John the Evangelist with his emblem, the eagle, alongside St Michael defeating a dragon. The east parts of the church show evidence of piecemeal enlargement and are dominated by a large pair of transepts on the north side, each with gables covering paired lancet windows with an oculus above. The east end of the chancel has three graded lancets with a mandorla above.

Internally, the walls are plastered and whitened throughout. The east end of the nave opens into the transepts through wide arches with chamfered forms, foliage capitals, and semi-circular responds. The chancel arch is larger, with a multi-moulded head and pairs of shafts to the responds with foliage capitals. Further arches lead to the south chapel and to the organ chamber transept. Between the two north transepts an arcade formerly stood, now filled in to provide clear separation. The roof over the east parts of the nave dates to the 1830s and is typical of its period, featuring tie-beams, queen-posts, and raked struts. The chancel roof is arch-braced. The west end of the nave has been walled off from the rest and features a central pointed doorway from the east parts and a pair of tall blind lancets that were intended to house Kempe windows with back-lighting, though this has never been implemented. The arches match the nave side windows and the new wall integrates well with the rest of the church.

The principal fixtures include an octagonal font, relocated to the north transept, with plain sides, a frieze at top and bottom, and a base with short stubby shafts. A polygonal pulpit with pairs of cusped arches to each face survives from the 19th century. The 19th-century pews in the east part of the nave retain medieval-style square ends but have been painted maroon. The chancel has graduated triple sedilia. Near the entrance to the south transept is an unusual Gothic monument to Henry Guy (died 1859) by J M Lockyear, comprising a large mural tablet of Sicilian marble inlaid with black and coloured marble, with lettering framed by a Gothic arch. Several windows date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries: two nave lancets are by Kempe, 1902; the tower south window is by W B Simpson and Sons, 1883.

Henry Guy, who died in 1859, was one of the prime movers in building and endowing the church. Frederic Chancellor (1825–1918), the architect responsible for later 19th-century work at the church, was a successful provincial architect based in Chelmsford where he established independent practice in 1846. He served as mayor of Chelmsford seven times from 1888 onwards.