Church Of St John

UXBRIDGE

804/21/391 ST JOHN'S ROAD 06-SEP-74 UXBRIDGE MOOR (South side) CHURCH OF ST JOHN

II Commissioners' Church, now converted into offices. Built 1838 by Henry Atkinson. London stock brick with slate roof and stuccoed dressings. Simple box-like plan to the Atkinson church with a W porch and bellcote, and a later chancel(chancel not seen at time of survey, July 2004).

EXTERIOR: W end to the street with a stuccoed W porch with gabled parapet above a string course, set-back buttresses and a Tudor-arched doorway with hoodmould. Clock face in moulded stuccoed roundel above. The church is gabled to the W with a stuccoed parapet and gabled bellcote at the apex. N and S windows with Y tracery.

INTERIOR: Not inspected but the chancel is understood to have been preserved as a single space.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Of special interest as an 1838 Commissioners' Church, this is a characteristic early-Victorian church by the architect Henry Atkinson. It is representative of a district growing in population in this period and expanding its places of worship. St John's is a typical example of a Commissioners' Church: using inexpensive materials and keeping architectural decoration to a minimum. The design is successful, however, in overcoming barriers of cost to produce an attractive church. Its stock brick and stucco dressing mirror the materials used in many London domestic buildings of this period and the side windows and porch are elegantly executed. It marks the end of the Georgian approach to Gothic design, before Pugin's writings and designs led to such a major change in church buildings. While the loss of interior features is regrettable, the exterior is intact and the church fully merits listing at Grade II.

SOURCES: Pevsner, The Buildings of England, London 4, North, 1999, p 358