Church Of St John The Evangelist

Church of St John The Evangelist

Anglican parish church, built as a chapel of ease to St Mary's. Opened October 1854, with transepts added around 1868. Designed by John Bury. The building is constructed of coursed and square Portland stone with cream ashlar dressings and green slate roofs.

The church is oriented in Decorated style with the main altar to the north, positioned at the junction of Dorchester Road with Greenhill. The plan comprises a 6-bay nave with clerestorey and aisles, a south-west tower with porch, an east porch, twin-gabled transepts, a chancel with chapels, and a north-west vestry.

The exterior features windows with stopped labels and saddle-backed copings. Stone terminal crosses crown the nave, chancel, and both porches. The 3-stage tower has an octagonal broach spire with lucarnes at two levels, corner buttresses finished to a gable in the top stage, a stair clamp at its junction with the aisle, and 2-light openings with fretted screens and plate tracery to the bell stage.

The south-facing porch is deep with a gable stopped to carved angels, a stone vault, and a full width of stone steps over a pair of plank doors with strap hinges. A plinth runs around the whole building, developing greater depth on the west side where the ground falls away. The nave's south end has a large 5-light window incorporating a rose beneath a small spherical triangle with trefoil, with a slightly set-back aisle containing a 2-light window.

The east side facing Greenhill has four 2-light clerestorey windows to segmental pointed heads divided by flat pilasters under a roll-mould stone eaves and gutter, with large stone gargoyles at the chancel end. The aisle has three 2-light windows separated by square buttresses to two offsets, with a projecting porch at the left end featuring squat diagonal buttresses. The twin-gabled transept has ridges below clerestorey gutter level and a central valley gutter, with central and corner diagonal buttresses and 3-light windows. A large carved gargoyle figure sits at the outlet from the central valley to the transept. The return transept wall to the south is plain but has 20th-century ventilating ducting externally.

The chancel, narrower and lower than the nave, has a deep 2-light window to the east and west, diagonal buttresses, and a large 5-light north window. The chapel in the internal angle on the east side has ball-flower decoration to the eaves cornice, a 2-light window, central and diagonal corner buttresses, and a 2-light window to the north. The west side internal angle is filled with a complex of chapel and vestry, including twin gables and a lower flat-roofed range with an octagonal projecting unit. The west side otherwise corresponds with the east in layout and detailing.

The interior has painted plaster walls on carpeting throughout, except for Minton tiling in the sanctuary area. The nave has arch-braced trusses carried on long wall posts to leaf corbels, plus deep brattished tie-beams and a king-post. The arcades are in two chamfered orders with labels to foliage stops, on octagonal piers; at the transept position the pier extends as a short length of walling on each side. The aisles have propped lean-to roofs and dado panelling to sill height.

The doubled transepts have transverse arch-braced roofs and a 2-bay arcade, but the outer bays are closed off on each side by a lightweight screen to approximately 2.5 metres height. The north wall of the right transept has a large blocked archway, and the left transept has a door in moulded arch under a pierced stone panel with four trefoils, presumably in conjunction with the adjacent organ gallery. The deep chancel has a panelled multi-facet barrel ceiling. The richly carved stone reredos is flanked by dark panelling in Gothic detailing on each side, with two canopied stalls to the right. To the left is the main organ case in a high flat segmental arch.

Fittings include an octagonal stone pulpit, brass lectern, brass communion rail, and a fine carved altar front. There are no pews or fixed seating. Many windows contain stained glass, including the great south window of 1862, a memorial to Georgina Phipps, wife to John Stephenson (died 1905), the first vicar to St John's.

The church stands on a busy traffic island and is the most prominent building on the sea-front, visible from most parts of the town and acting as a visual focus at the north end of the Esplanade. Its lofty tower and spire are reminiscent of the work of Benjamin Ferrey, who was the Diocesan architect at the time.