Church Of St John

The Church of St John is a parish church located on Church Hill Road in Plymstock, built in 1855 by architect William White. It features walls made of Plymouth limestone rubble with limestone dressings and has very steep dry slate roofs. A bellcote with paired openings is situated over the west end of the nave. The architectural style is simple early to mid Gothic, with a layout that includes a nave, a long chancel, a south aisle, and a south porch.

The exterior showcases paired lancet windows with quatrefoils above them. The porch has a pointed-arched doorway with two chamfered orders. Inside, there is a five-bay arcade of unmoulded pointed arches supported by squat octagonal black marble piers with chamfered capitals, and the chancel features painted roof trusses.

Notable fittings include a red marble font on a slightly tapered limestone base, and a complete set of chancel furnishings made of coloured marble in the early Decorated style. The reredos features gabled arcading and pierced tracery, while the credence shelf has a small Gothic aedicule. The communion rails are adorned with trefoil arches, and there are simple marble sedilia. The altar front is decorated with carved and painted wooden tracery. Choir stalls were relocated to the west end of the church in 1968, and a screen was added in 1907. The nave features linenfold panelling installed in 1916 by Violet Pinwell.

Most of the stained glass is post-war, with some by G Cooper Abbs. The church also contains two Gothic tablets commemorating the Rev. J Tapson, who died in 1904. The Church of St John is part of a distinguished group of buildings designed by White, including St John's Church Hall, which was built on the initiative of Sir Frederick Rogers, a supporter of the Tractarian movement.