Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

Anglican church built between 1863 and 1865 to the design of Charles Bailey. Vestries were added to the north and south in 1883 by A Burt, and a choir vestry was added in 1914 by HS Rogers. The church was reconstructed internally in 1951 by JBS Comper following bomb damage during the Second World War. The reconstruction work is included in this listing for its intrinsic interest.

The church is constructed of Kentish ragstone with tile roofs. Comper's internal reconstruction work is of reinforced concrete with a metal roof.

The plan comprises a rounded apse with a choir of one bay, vestries to north and south, a chapel of two bays opening off the north nave aisle, a nave of five bays with a west gallery, and a south aisle. A nearly freestanding tower of three stages with a broached spire stands on the south elevation at the junction between the nave and chancel. The architectural style is a revival of Early Gothic with lancet windows. Comper reproduced this lancet style in his clerestory work, but his internal vaulting has an almost Italian medieval character.

Externally, the apse has east-facing lancets that are sub-ordered with jamb shafts, divided by buttresses with two set-backs leading to a corbel table. A plinth runs at sill level. Parish rooms to the north-east are built in similar materials as a single-storey structure with a gabled roof. To the south of the apse stands a two-storey stair tower with a gable-facing elevation.

The tower comprises three stages with clasping corner buttresses and central buttresses to each face. The ground level features round-arched lights with a pair of trilobed lancets above. The stage below the bell stage contains quatrefoil roundels and gabled niches. The bell stage displays three lancets with a corbel table rising to the spire eaves.

Coupled trilobed lancets light each bay of the nave and the clerestory. A timber-framed porch with two storeys is located at the south aisle, positioned in the second bay from the west. Gable crosses ornament the east and west gables.

The west elevation is notable for its unusual design. A single pointed and sub-ordered entrance is flanked by strip buttresses ending in gabled niches. Three lancets above light the west gallery. Positioned just above the central lancet is an eight-light wheel window. The corners of the nave are marked by broad set-back buttresses terminating in pepper pot finials. The west end of the aisles features kneelers supporting the lean-to roof.

Internally, the chancel is raised three steps above the nave. The roof structure comprises a camber-arched king strut with four arches turning the round of the apse, each springing from a wall shaft. The nave arcade responds are set against a wall that is pierced by a simple chamfered and rebated chancel arch supported on corbelled shafts. The nave displays broadly proportioned quadripartite groin vaults with a rebated arcade sitting on cylindrical piers. The north and south aisles are shallow.

Fittings include a Tudor-style painted screen and rood loft on the north wall of the chancel, and a baldacchino on clustered shafts with trilobed arches. The spandrels of the baldacchino are painted with angels. At the west end of the chancel stands a Renaissance-styled altar. The west gallery is supported on a seven-bay arcade in English Renaissance style. The north, or lady chapel features painted decoration to the vault ribs and displays a polychromed statue of the Virgin and Child. An organ is positioned in the tower arch at the east end of the south aisle. An octagonal font stands at the west end. Stone paving to the nave is consistent with Comper's other alterations.

Most of the window glass is clear, with the exception of one aisle window dated 1914 executed in the manner of Kempe. Five brass chandeliers in an 18th-century style hang to each side of the interior.