Church of St John The Baptist

Church of St John The Baptist, Bromley Road, Catford

This substantial church was built between 1926 and 1927 by Sir Charles Nicholson, one of the leading church architects of the early 20th century. A south-east vestry was added in 1932. The building is constructed in pale brick with stone dressings and slate roofs.

The church was designed to replace a small chapel of ease built by John Forster in 1824, which still stands to the south of the present building and now serves as the church hall. This earlier chapel, dating from 1824, is a small and charming structure with a Tuscan porch. The new church was required following the construction of a substantial London County Council estate in the 1920s. The foundation stone was laid on 17 July 1926 by Lord Forster, a descendant of the original founder.

The church's plan comprises a two-bay nave with north and south aisles, north and south transepts, a long three-bay chancel with north and south chancel aisles, and a south-east vestry. Although generously proportioned, the church does not achieve its originally envisioned full size, as two additional bays were intended for the west end. The west end still terminates in plain temporary walling erected in the 1920s.

The architectural style is late medieval, blending Decorated and Perpendicular elements in a manner popular with late Gothic revival architects. The chancel terminates at its east end with angle buttresses and a high-set seven-light window displaying a fusion of Decorated and Perpendicular tracery. The three-light windows of the chancel aisles feature cusped intersected tracery. The chancel includes clerestory windows of three lights. Between the nave aisles and the chancel aisles stand tall transepts; the north transept has a large four-light window, while the south transept presents an unusual elevation with a band of five blind arches and above these a three-light square-headed window. The nave has a similar clerestory to that in the chancel. All parts of the building have plain parapets except for the transepts. The west end, being temporary in arrangement, is plain and features simple rectangular slit windows and doorways into the aisles.

The interior is light and spacious. The walls are painted white, with the stone dressings and arcades left exposed. The three-bay chancel has arcades of multi-moulded arches supported by robust round piers with moulded capitals and bases, their style more suggestive of 13th-century work than late medieval architecture. Wall shafts rise from the capitals to the springing of the roofs. In the east bay of the chancel, plain stone walling rises to just over head-height, with the south side recessed to accommodate a piscina and triple sedilia. The roofs throughout are low-pitched and divided into square panels by moulded ribs. The nave arcade follows the same form as that in the chancel. Flooring is of stone with wood blocks in the seating areas.

The most notable fixture is a table tomb by the sculptor Cecil Thomas, created in 1923, in the north chancel aisle commemorating John and Alfred Forster, who were killed in the First World War. The tomb is topped with a recumbent bronze figure of Alfred. Monuments from the original chapel have also been installed in this aisle, including a monument to John Forster (died 1834), the chapel's founder, featuring his bust in a niche, and to his wife Elizabeth (died 1837). The east window of the south chapel contains stained glass from 1933 by Karl Parsons and E. Liddall Armitage. A hatchment is mounted on the west wall.

The church was reordered in 1977, when the altar was relocated to the crossing, and a large corona was installed. A subsequent reordering around 2006 returned the altar to the east end, as the crossing arrangement had proved unsatisfactory. The seating now consists of modern chairs.

Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson (1867–1949) was articled to the renowned late Victorian architect J D Sedding in 1889 and, after Sedding's death in 1891, served as assistant to his successor Henry Wilson. He began independent practice in 1895 and was in partnership with Hubert Corlette from 1895 to 1914. He served as consulting architect to the cathedrals of Belfast, Lincoln, Lichfield, Llandaff, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Wells, and as Diocesan Architect for Chelmsford, Portsmouth, Wakefield and Winchester.

Cecil Thomas (1885–1976) trained under his father and at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, initially specializing in gem engraving and first exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1909. His portrait work in cameos led to his interest in medals from around 1910. He also produced larger sculptures in stone and bronze, many with religious themes, including a memorial to the Most Reverend Lord Davidson of Lambeth (1933) at Canterbury Cathedral. His royal portraits frequently appeared on official medals, and he was awarded the OBE in 1958. The British Museum holds a collection of his plaster models.