Church of St John

Church of St John, Wimborne Road

This is a suburban church in the Early English style, built in stages between 1873 and 1923. The nave, south aisle, and tower base were designed by G.E. Street in 1873–74. The chancel, organ chamber, vestry, and south-east chapel followed in 1886–87, designed by A.W. Blomfield. The porch and upper tower were added by Sidney Tugwell in 1923.

The church is constructed of squared coursed stone with golden limestone dressings and clay tiled roofs, topped by a leaded spire. The plan comprises a five-bay nave, a four-bay south aisle with tower and attached porch at its west end, a chancel, a three-bay south chapel, a transeptal organ chamber to the north, and north-east vestries. Ritual orientations apply; the west end actually faces south.

The exterior displays severe Early English detailing. The west gable features a very large wheel window, which is the most striking feature of the church. Below it are three stubby buttresses, with an angle buttress at the north-west corner. Six uncusped lancets appear in the north wall. The upper tower and south-west porch, added in 1923 by S.C. Tugwell, are sheer and unbuttressed. The tower has clasping buttresses at its angles, plain paired bell openings with louvres, and a short cap spire behind flat parapets. The south aisle contains four windows, each of two lights with a quatrefoiled circle in plate tracery. The south chapel has smaller, less severely detailed windows and unusually features a secondary porch at its west end. The chancel has a five-light east window and a three-light window to the south chapel, both with Geometric tracery. The north-east vestries have two gables facing east; the section behind the northern gable was added in 1915, probably by F.A. Ling of Bournemouth.

The interior is plastered and painted white. The four-bay south arcade has simple chamfered arches on circular piers with moulded capitals. A tall arch with continuous mouldings opens from Street's tower base into the aisle. The nave roof features collar beams with semi-circular arch braces that frame the big wheel window with concentric curves. In the roof apex are post-and-beam braces standing on the collars. The aisle has canted rafters. A chancel arch on angel corbels separates the nave from the sanctuary. The south side of the sanctuary contains built-in sedilia and a piscina. The chancel roof is boarded and painted, with pointed arched trusses. The south chapel has a similar form, but the roof is canted at four angles in section. Nave floors are wood blocks with carpeted walkways.

The chancel stalls are of oak with fleur-de-lis finials and pierced Gothic friezes on the stall fronts. Street designed the font: a circular bowl with medallions on marble colonnettes and circular steps. The font cover, added in 1890, is of pitch pine and other timbers in a spire form on plain circular columns, with gabled trefoil arches and gilded pinnacles. The pulpit is of stone with marble shafts at the angles; its arched panels were subsequently filled with figural paintings of Saints (poorly executed, dating to 1919). An Italian Baroque sanctuary lamp is present. Wrought-iron screens were installed to the south chapel in 1919 and across the chancel in 1929.

The stained glass includes the east window depicting the Crucifixion by Clayton and Bell, 1889. They are also credited with the south window of the chancel, one window in the south chapel, and a window in the north wall of the nave. The south chapel east window is by Mary Lowndes, 1911. Two windows in the north wall of the nave may be by W.F. Dixon, dating to around 1875. Two lights in the Arts and Crafts style by Margaret E. Rope (tower base, probably around 1923) and one by Morris and Co., 1937 are also present. The seating was replaced before 2004 with upholstered chairs.

A schoolroom licensed for services was built around 1853–54 near the site of St John. After 1874 this became commercial premises and survives as Old St John's Mews, further north on Wimborne Road. St John the Baptist, Moordown, was the third daughter church of St Peter, Bournemouth, part of a zealous campaign by Reverend Alexander Morden Bennett begun around 1855. By around 1900, Bennett's chain of High Anglican foundations included at least nineteen churches in Bournemouth. Street was engaged for the rebuilding of St Peter and for the first three daughter churches: St James Pokesdown (1858), St Michael (1866), and St John. Street's original design for the upper tower was taller and more elaborate, with a steep saddleback roof straddled by a big pinnacle, but this was never executed. The overall effect has been further diminished by the later additions of Blomfield and Tugwell.

George Edmund Street (1824–81) was one of the greatest figures in Victorian architecture. Although born and educated in London, he was articled to Winchester architect Owen Carter from 1841 and spent time in the office of George Gilbert Scott from 1844 before commencing practice in Wantage in 1848. Growing success led to a move to London in 1856 and a career that made him one of the leaders of the Gothic Revival. Much of his work is characterised by a strong, muscular quality greatly admired from the 1850s onwards. He was also an early pioneer of polychromy. His most ambitious work is the Royal Courts of Justice in London, for which he gained the commission in 1868. He served as diocesan architect for Oxford, York, Winchester, and Ripon, and was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1874. His fame and status is reflected in his burial in Westminster Abbey, a distinction he shared with his former master, Scott.