Priory Church of St John of Jerusalem

Details

ISLINGTON

TQ3182SE ST JOHN'S SQUARE 635-1/74/811 (East side) 29/12/50 Priory Church of St John of Jerusalem

GV I

Anglican church. Crypt of c.1140 and c.1180; the main body of the church partly of C16 and partly of 1723 by Simon Michell; restored by Lord Mottistone after bomb damage, c.1958. Coursed rubble stonework and dressed stone, red , purple and yellow brick set in Flemish bond with dressings of gauged red brick, roof of copper. East end: the walls consist mostly of coursed rubble stonework to the lower parts, of dressed stone level with the windows, and of red brick above; an entrance below the northernmost window formed in yellow brick and concrete, presumably in 1958. Three pointed-arched windows with rectilinear tracery and hoodmoulds, the centre window of five lights, the outer ones of four; three buttresses flank the two southernmost windows, with offsets, the northernmost carried up to the parapet in brick. Parapet with moulded stone string and coving. South wall of three bays, the pointed-arched windows having hollow- and wave-moulded embrasures and rectilinear tracery; medieval rubble buttress to east end with some brown brickwork above; then three buttresses mostly of dressed stone, rectangular in plan as far as the offset, then triangular, the two outer buttresses chamfered with run-out stops, and the westernmost having stops carved with the badge of Prior Docwra and a rose; the middle of these three buttresses inscribed 'This area was constructed, the south side of the church extensively repaired and the tracery of the windows renewed 1907'; pointed-arched entrance in middle bay; stone string above buttresses and parapet of red brick. The west front has two levels of windows and three-window range, the middle bay projecting, and the bays divided by stone pilasters with capitals of simple Doric form; most of the lower part obscured by the single-storey vestibule added in 1958; segmental-arched window to ground-floor left bay with head of gauged red brick; upper windows round-arched with heads of gauged red brick; cornice of gauged red brick; parapet. INTERIOR: . The church is now a simple rectangular space; panelled ceiling dating from Lord Mottistone's restoration of c.1958, as does the canopy over the altar, the pilasters, brackets and ornaments, some of which were rescued from the remains of Simon Michell's work. C12 footings of columns either side of canopy. Crypt of five bays, the westernmost barrel-vaulted; then three bays with round arches and cross-vaults, of c.1140; and a final bay with pointed arches and cross-vaults, of c.1180; the arches are moulded and ribbed and spring from triple-clustered shafts; lancet windows to the three round-arched bays, with deep embrasures. North and south chapels also of c.1180 with pointed arches and cross-vaults. Alabaster effigy of Don Juan Ruyz de Vergara, c.1575, in the body of the crypt, formerly in Valladolid cathedral; plinth of 1915; effigy of Sir William Weston, c.1540, in north chapel, formerly in St James's church, Clerkenwell.

Listing NGR: TQ3169882165

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

369312

Legacy System:

LBS

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