Roman Catholic Church Of St John

Roman Catholic Church of St John

This is a major Gothic Revival church built between 1861 and 1863, with the tower and spire added in 1867. It was designed by Charles Francis Hansom, who considered it one of his best works. The church replaced an inadequate chapel in Corn Street and was founded as an off-shoot of Downside Abbey by Father Worsley. The site was acquired from the Earl Manvers, and the church was not transferred to Clifton Diocese until 1932.

The building is constructed of rock-faced Bath limestone rubble with freestone dressings and has Welsh slate roofs, which were replaced in 1994. It follows a cruciform plan with a nave, aisles, transepts, a polygonal apse, side chapels, a west tower and spire, and a north-west porch.

The church is designed in the Decorated style and presents a striking Gothic Revival appearance. The three-bay west front features a central arched doorway surmounted with a relief of the eagle of St John, set within a crocketed gable and flanked by stepped buttresses. Above this is a five-light traceried west window beneath a hood mould, with trefoil, quatrefoil and mouchette motifs. The three-stage tower has a consistent elevation on each side, with the middle stage featuring a clock (installed in 1868) flanked by two lancets. The upper belfry stage has a pair of two-light slatted openings with quatrefoil heads, beneath triangular carved reliefs. The octagonal spire, added in 1867 and based on that of Salisbury Cathedral, is decorated with four bands of diapering and has gabled two-light openings to each principal face. The spire is topped with a finial surmounted by a cruciform iron terminal. Crocketed spirelets to the tower corners echo those of Bath Abbey. A baptistery projects to the left with a connection to the Presbytery to the right, featuring a two-light gabled lucarne to four main faces.

The north front has a gable to the baptistery, another to the porch, and three gables to the nave aisles, each with a three-light window. A large gable to the north transept contains a circular window with seven trefoil lights surrounding a quatrefoil. Above the aisle, the nave clerestory has three-light windows with strip pilasters between and a corbel table above. The south side was originally similar but plainer, though it was partly obscured by the connection to the Presbytery. Both the Presbytery and north aisle were destroyed on 27 April 1942 and were rebuilt to a new design by the Alec French Partnership in the 1950s. The east end has two three-light windows to the aisles and triangular gables with trefoils in the roof above, features not repeated on the south side, which is much plainer. The three faces of the apse each have a three-light window in a gable, separated by stepped buttresses. The apse roof has triangular trefoil vents and decorative iron cresting to the ridge.

Internally, a five-bay nave arcade of polished red Devonshire marble features large foliate capitals of Ancaster stone, comprising fourteen columns in all. The rest of the internal stonework is Bath limestone ashlar. The aisle roofs are supported by timber trusses to the arcade, each pierced by an octofoil. The altarpiece and carvings associated with the arcade are of polished marble and alabaster by the Earl of London. There is good joinery, particularly in the Sanctuary. The stained glass and metalwork are by Hardman of Birmingham, though they sustained some damage in the bombing of 1942. The ironwork parclose screens represent an important survival of the work of John Hardman Powell. The roof is supported by timber ribs, with ceilings panelled in large squares with central bosses, though this is probably a post-Second World War repair. The Lady Chapel altar was incorporated from the previous Roman Catholic Church in Bath, which still survives in Corn Street. The baptistery contains relics of St Justina within a shrine designed by Edward Hansom in 1871. The belfry contains a ring of eight bells by Taylors of Loughborough, installed in 1868 and 1878. The fall in levels from west to east enabled the construction of a lower level of rooms at the east end beneath the sacristies, connected with the adjoining clergy house or priory.

The church presents a very striking silhouette, particularly when viewed across the river from the east, and adds important vertical interest to the lowest part of Bath. When the spire was added in 1867, it transformed the Bath skyline as the tower had initially finished at the arcaded parapet level.