Church Of St John

Church of St John

This is a substantial Victorian church on St John's Road, begun in 1858 by the London architect Alexander Dick Gough and substantially enlarged and remodelled over the following four decades. The original church of 1858 (probably begun in 1857) was planned with seating for 465 people and estimated to cost £2,600, though the final cost rose to £3,044. A plaque records the consecration date and notes that the freehold of the land was given by the Conservative Land Society. The church originally had a south tower and spire, now replaced.

The building underwent significant expansion and remodelling: in 1864 the north transept was extended; in 1871 the north aisle was added by E E Cronk; and in 1896 E E Cronk junior built the south aisle, west tower with flanking porch passages, and reroofed the church. Late 20th-century reordering and an early 21st-century church hall have been added to the south side, and the late 20th-century extension on the south side was replaced around 2004.

The church is constructed of Kentish ragstone laid in a random pattern with freestone dressings, and has red clay tiled roofs. Its style is Decorated work of the 14th century, though freely treated throughout. The plan comprises a nave, north and south aisles, a west tower with flanking porch passages, north and south transepts (the north with a stair turret and small porch attached), a chancel, and a southeast vestry.

The west end is the principal facade. The four-stage west tower has a pierced, embattled parapet with pinnacles and is flanked by a hexagonal northwest stair turret rising above the tower and culminating in a crocketed stone spirelet. Above the moulded west doorway is a large circular window with very florid tracery under an ogee hoodmould. The belfry lights are pairs of two-light reticulated windows with a transom. The aisles have highly unusual Decorated tracery in their west windows, which sit above the porch passages spanning the church width. Both aisles are five bays long with side windows of three-light Decorated design and buttresses with offsets between the bays. The transepts feature five-light windows in their north and south faces with florid Decorated tracery. A small porch is attached to the centre of the north transept wall, with a stubby octagonal stair turret at the northeast corner under a pyramidal roof. The east end displays complex, irregular massing with a five-light east window in Decorated tracery. A large vestry block is set at an angle to fit the site.

The interior has plastered and whitened walls. Arcades lead from the nave to very wide aisles. The arch heads are moulded, the piers are round with foliage capitals and moulded bases, and there are two three-light windows set in the roof. The tower arch at the west end is broad, high, and of four orders; a plainer arch leads to the sanctuary. The 1896 roof in the nave is of arch-braced queen-post construction carried on stone wall shafts with carved capitals on carved corbels; the roof spandrels are cusped and the arch-braces intersect at the crossing. The sanctuary has a common rafter roof, painted white.

19th-century seating has been removed and replaced with late 20th-century chairs. A late 20th-century stepped timber platform extends into the crossing at the east end. The north transept contains a 19th-century raked gallery, and a 20th-century gallery projects in front of the tower arch at the west end with a metal and timber stair to it from the nave. The late 19th-century font has an octagonal bowl carved with rosettes and trefoil-headed arches and marble shifts to the base, with a pierced timber font cover. There is no pulpit. The east window dates to 1893 and is by C E Kempe. Monuments include various 19th-century brass wall tablets.

Alexander Dick Gough (1804–71) was a London architect, pupil of B D Wyatt, and partner of Robert Louis Roumieu from 1836 to 1848. Edwyn Evans Cronk senior was joined by his son (born 1846) as a partner; Cronk junior was articled to his cousin H H Cronk, who practised in Tunbridge Wells. For a relatively modern church, St John's has a complex building history with little remaining from the original structure of 1858. The most notable architectural feature is the very florid and inventive tracery in the principal windows.