Church Of St John The Baptist

Church of St John the Baptist

Roman Catholic church on Bristol Road, Brighton. Designed and built between 1832 and 1835 by William Hallett, with sculpture by John Carew. The ritual east end was extended 60 feet in 1875 to designs by Gilbert Robert Blount. Further additions were carried out between 1887 and 1890. Wall decorations by Nathaniel Hubert Westlake were added from 1890 to 1921. The building is constructed in stucco with a slate roof.

The plan comprises a sanctuary of one bay; choir of 2 bays with north and south chapels of 2 bays each; an aisleless nave; an organ loft at the ritual west end; a baptistery at the ritual south-west corner of the nave; an entry porch at the ritual north-west; and an entrance porch at the ritual west end. The building is executed in Greek Revival style, with the east end in Renaissance Revival style.

The ritual west front is treated as a temple front with a pediment to the gabled roof and an entablature bearing the Latin inscription: Deo sub invoc. S. Joannis Bapt. Pilasters of the Composite Order occupy the outside corners of the wall below. A distyle in antis porch of the same order stands in the centre of the facade. The returns of the porch have flat-arched entries. The main entrance in the centre of the porch is flat-arched with an architrave, entablature and dentil cornice, and has a pediment above with raking dentil cornice. Above the centre entrance is a flat-arched niche with architrave, containing a statue of St John the Baptist, the patron of the church. A sill band continues across the front walls on either side of the entrance. Above this sill band in the front walls is a flat-arched window with an architrave. An opening below the sill band, set in a pedimented aedicule, is blocked. The south elevation was formerly hidden by the Cell Block and Refectory of St Joseph's convent at No. 3 Bristol Road, which has recently been demolished. On the north elevation there is one pilaster of the Composite order between each nave window. A porch to the north-west, dating from around 1890, is single storey with a round-arched entrance in the ritual north face. The entrance is framed by a Tuscan pilaster supporting an arch with an architrave and enlarged keystone, set within an aedicule consisting of a pair of Tuscan pilasters with exaggerated entasis, entablature and pediment.

The interior features a barrel vault in the choir and sanctuary with panelled transverse ribs. The north and south chapels are cross-vaulted. Transverse ribs in the sanctuary spring from pilasters of the Composite order, and in the choir from a round-arched arcade of 2 bays, supported by a pilaster to the east wall, a column, and a square pier at the west end of the choir. Responds run along the north and south walls, all in the Composite Order, with architraves on the arches. Viewed from the nave, the chancel arch and arches to the side chapels are treated as an arcade of 3 bays, with the central bay higher and broader than the sides. The keystones of each arch are treated as console brackets. Steps lead down to the floor of the nave. A segmental-arched window with shouldered and eared architrave and projecting sill occupies each bay of the sanctuary and choir. Wood screens separate the north and south chapels from the choir. A 17th-century Belgian altar rail was added in 1890. The nave is rectangular in plan with a plain dado and a dentil cornice at the top of the walls. Along each side wall are 4 flat-arched windows. In the north and south walls, under the second window from the east end, is a segmental-arched door with an eared architrave. The ceiling of the nave is plain, pierced by 3 ventilation ducts in the form of rosettes, added in 1890. At the west end is an organ gallery supported on 2 cast-iron columns with capitals of acanthus and palm leaves, entablature and a painted gallery front topped by a wooden screen of thin, turned colonnettes on high socles. These support a nine-bay arcade of round and cusped arches with an entablature above. Between each socle is a metal filigree railing. The centre bay of the arcade is the widest and gives a view of the organ. The baptistery, finished in 1889 and entered through a round diaphragm arch, contains a stone low-relief sculpture of St John the Baptist and Christ executed by Carew around 1835, which was the original altarpiece.

The south chapel is dedicated to Our Lady and contains a stone altar consecrated in 1875, with an aediculed niche above holding a statue of the Virgin and Child. The north chapel is dedicated to the Sacred Heart, also of the same date, with an aediculed niche above the stone altar holding a statue of Christ holding the Sacred Heart. The baptistery contains the stone low-relief sculpture by Carew dating from around 1835, showing John the Baptist baptizing Christ. The pavement is of encaustic tile and there is a round font on an acanthus leaf base. Carew also carved 2 Composite capitals which flanked the original altar; these were likely reused in the rebuilding of the east end. Under the windows next to the organ gallery is a 3-bayed round-arched niche containing the figure of a saint. The nave benches and pulpit date from 1890, when Nathaniel Hubert Westlake began the elaborate painted decorations that cover most of the interior wall surfaces and designed the windows. Of special note is the altarpiece, an oil painting on canvas depicting Christ Enthroned and Adored, with prophets and saints attending. The panels between the nave windows form a narrative cycle depicting the Life of the Church's patron saint. Westlake's final works, dating from 1917 to 1921, are a memorial to Father Johnston, who served as assistant priest and then rector from 1876 to 1916. A monument to Maria Fitzherbert (1756-1837) occupies the south wall next to the organ gallery. Fitzherbert was the Catholic widow married to the Prince of Wales in 1783 and disowned by the Prince Regent in 1811, although she continued to frequent Brighton. The monument shows her as a widow with the Lamp of Memory, kneeling before broken gospels in the form of Fidelity or Religion, wearing 3 wedding rings as required by Catholic ecclesiastical law. She was patroness of this congregation. On the north wall in the same position is a memorial to the Reverend Edward Cullin (1776-1850), who built the church.

Hallett based his design closely on the Catholic church of St Mary, Moorfields, London, completed by architect John Newman between 1817 and 1820. In the late 1880s, designs for a complete remodelling of the church in a Romanesque and Italian Renaissance style were made by S.J. Nicholl. These designs were shown at the Royal Academy in 1887 and published in The Builder for 21 May 1887 and 1 September 1888.