1881 Chapel At Convent Of St John The Baptist

This is a chapel of 1881, built for an Anglican convent, and designed by Henry Woodyer. The building is constructed of red brick with a steeply pitched slate roof featuring gabled and hipped ends.

The plan comprises a tall five-bay nave with aisles, a chancel, and a polygonal apse. The chancel is elongated and tall, terminating in the apse, which has a pierced brick parapet and buttresses topped with crocketed pinnacles. Tall, moulded three-light windows with Geometrical tracery are set within crocketed gables. The roof extends over the aisles, incorporating turrets at the angles. The west gable features a pair of tall three-light windows, with a statue housed in a canopied niche between them. An elaborate lead-clad fleche rises from the ridge of the roof.

Inside, the walls are polychrome brick. The lofty nave has stone arcades with tall round piers and moulded pointed arches. A timber roof is supported by cusped arch-braces. The chancel and apse have lower vaulted ceilings with painted canvas panels. A tall, carved wooden rood screen is present, along with carved stone reredoses in both the chancel and south aisle. Stained glass windows are the work of Hardman. The chapel contains a monument of 1901, by Bodley, to Canon T.T. Carter (rector of Clewer and first warden), featuring a recumbent effigy under a canopy. There is also a brass plaque from 1883 commemorating Harriet Monsell, the foundress.