Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist

This church, designed by Arthur Ashpitel and built in 1852–1853, stands on an island site where it forms an important visual and spiritual focus for the area developed in early and mid-Victorian times. The building was reordered in 1999, when parish offices, kitchen, and meeting spaces were inserted within the western end.

The church is constructed of uncoursed ragstone with freestone dressings and Welsh slate roofs. Its plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a lower chancel with aisles, a western tower and spire, north and south porches, an organ chamber to the south of the chancel, and a vestry to the north.

The exterior displays late medieval styling with Decorated and Perpendicular details from the 14th and 15th centuries, though Perpendicular character predominates. A landmark tower and spire dominate the composition. The tower has large angle buttresses and rises in four stages. The lowest stage contains a moulded western doorway with fleuron decoration and an ogee-headed, crocketed hood. The second stage features a four-light transomed window combining Perpendicular and Decorated tracery. The third stage displays a clock face on the west, north, and south faces, each set beneath a triangular-headed canopy, followed by a frieze with shields and a pair of two-light transomed windows at the belfry stage. Large corner pinnacles and smaller intermediate ones crown the tower. A southeast octagonal stair turret ascends the tower. The ribbed spire rises behind a pierced parapet and is buttressed by flying buttresses to the corner pinnacles. The aisles have four-light Perpendicular side windows and three-light windows at their east and west ends. Two-storeyed porches flank the building, with the northern porch featuring a demi-octagonal upper stage. The nave includes a clerestory with three-light Perpendicular windows. At the east end of the chancel stands a five-light window matching those of the aisles. Tall pinnacles rise from the chancel corners.

The interior's chief feature is tall four-bay arcading to the aisles beneath a very high clerestory. The arches are wide with slender piers carrying continuous mouldings on the diagonals and half shafts supporting small battlements at the top. The chancel arch echoes this detail. A tie-beam roof with upright struts and cusping in the rectangular openings formed spans the nave; intermediate trusses incorporate a collar and two curved struts. The aisle roofs are plain lean-to construction. The original western gallery was removed in 1999 when parish facilities were inserted, occupying the western bay and part of the second bay from the west. Timber and glazing now front the nave with a gallery above.

The pulpit, probably original, is a florid three-sided stone Gothic form with variegated pink marble shafts. An octagonal font, also likely original, was resited at the east end of the north aisle. The chancel contains a carved screen, panelling, and a mosaic and opus sectile reredos by H.S. Rogers. Stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne occupies the second window from the east in the south aisle, dated 1900. Mid-20th century replacement windows in the north aisle replaced glass blown out during the Second World War.

Arthur Ashpitel FSA (1807–1869), born in Hackney and commencing practice in 1842, suffered ill-health after 1855 and travelled abroad, though continuing his architectural work. His choice of Perpendicular styling was unusual for the period, as this manner had become unfashionable for church-building after the mid-1840s, when earlier late 13th-century and circa 1300 styles gained favour. The church represents a fine example of early Victorian church-building provision as a dignified focus for Anglican worship within an area of prestigious development.