Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John the Evangelist, Upper Parkstone, Poole

Church, built 1902–3, designed by architects Romaine Walker and Besant in an eclectic style combining Georgian, Decorated and Byzantine elements. The church is constructed of red brick in English bond with Bath stone dressings and plain-tile roofs.

The building comprises a chancel with an organ chamber and choir vestry to its north, a vestry to the south, a nave with north and south aisles, and a south porch.

Exterior

The chancel is two bays long and features a five-light east window with a round-arched head and hoodmould continued as a string course either side. The window displays elaborate Decorated tracery with ogee-arched heads to the lights, further subdivided by two trefoiled tracery arches with a small encircled quatrefoil between them and a pendant boss below. The two outer lights are grouped within round-headed sub-arches with quatrefoils to their heads flanked by mouchettes. Above the sub-arches in the head of the window is a multi-cusped quatrefoil in a circle flanked by mouchettes. This tracery pattern is repeated in all two-light windows to the aisles, the west end of the nave, the east window of the south vestry, and the north window of the choir vestry. A foundation stone below the east window is inscribed "THIS STONE WAS LAID / ON APRIL 17TH 1902 / BY / LADY WIMBORNE". The east end is flanked by stone-quoined angle buttresses with trefoiled gablets and has a stone-coped gable with kneelers and a foliated gable cross. Circular cinque-foiled windows flank the sanctuary on either side.

The organ chamber and choir vestry form a wing at right angles to the chancel across the east end of the north aisle. The vestry has a chamfered door on its east side at the north end with a pointed-arched head, beside a pair of small windows with roll-moulded surrounds, round-arched heads and a single hoodmould; a two-light window is positioned at the north end. The vestry on the south side of the chancel continues the south aisle of the nave and has a two-light east window with similar tracery and hoodmould. The door to the south side features one order of shafts with small basket and foliage capitals in Byzantine style, a round-arched head, a plain recessed tympanum and a hoodmould. The vestry has a stone-coped gable with a kneeler to the left. The south slope of the gable is interrupted by a stone-coped shoulder, possibly for a chimney stack or small bellcote, and a stone-quoined south angle buttress with trefoiled gablets. The aisles have similar two-light windows. The south porch has stone quoins, a stone-coped gable, and a clock face in the gable above the doorway. The doorway has one order of shafts with Byzantine-style capitals, a roll-moulded round-arched head and a hoodmould; one-light windows to the sides have cusped round-arched heads and hoodmoulds continued as string courses either side. The west end of the nave projects slightly forward and has a pair of similar two-light windows. A shallow gabled west porch contains a doorway with one order of shafts, small Byzantine-style basket and foliage capitals, a roll-moulded round-arched head and a recessed plain tympanum. The nave and aisles each have stone-coped gables with kneelers positioned outermost. The nave has a foliated cross to its east gable and a cut-down stone base of a former bellcote to its west gable. A chamfered plinth and buttresses run between the aisle bays; those on the south side have trefoiled round-arched stone gablets. Similar angle buttresses flank the aisles.

Interior

The interior features exposed red brick walls with stone detailing. The nave has six-bay arcades with plain circular piers, moulded bases on square plinths, and capitals inspired by the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. These capitals have square abaci with beasts at the corners over baskets; the beasts include doves and symbols of the Four Evangelists. The round-headed arches have wreathed medallions in the spandrels set on continuous stone panelling with regularly spaced vertical ribs. The boarded timber roof has a deep cove and a tunnel vault with double-chamfered ribs at regular intervals and wrought-iron ties. The aisles have boarded timber segmental tunnel-vaulted roofs. A twin-shafted chancel arch with Byzantine-style capitals and a round-arched head leads to the chancel, which has two-bay arcades on square diagonally set brick piers with detached stone shafts and similar capitals. The upper walls are treated in the same manner as the nave. The east window is flanked by twisted colonnettes with acanthus capitals and Commandments on stone tablets with twisted rope surrounds.

Historical Notes

An early photograph displayed in the church shows that the chancel originally contained what appeared to be a genuine Georgian timber reredos below the east window, of the same width as the present scheme (now destroyed), which may have determined the church's proportions and influenced its eclectic style. Canon Basil Clarke, in manuscript notes deposited with the Council for the Care of Churches, recorded that the church was consecrated on 9 May 1903 and cost £5,260. The builders were Messrs Jenkins and Son of Bournemouth. Materials comprised Milton red brick with Cosham Down Bath stone dressings, Monks Park Bath stone for internal work, and cypress wood for the pews. Canon Clarke commented that "The style is most peculiar... the windows round-headed but filled with somewhat outre tracery, the arcades Byzantine... We did not like it much – it is of course horridly low". The stylistic combination is certainly very unusual, yet the architects achieved a fine interior on a very limited budget by the standards of the period.