Church of St John the Evangelist

Details

SOUTHWARK

TQ3475 EAST DULWICH ROAD 636-1/13/325 (North West side) 23/12/94 Church of St John the Evangelist

GV II

Anglican church. 1863-65. By Charles Bailey; vestries added in 1883 by A Burt, and a choir vestry in 1914 by HS Rogers. Reconstructed internally in 1951 by JBS Comper after bomb damage. MATERIALS: Kentish ragstone with roofs of tile. Comper's work, which is included for its intrinsic interest, complementing the furnishings and original architecture, of reinforced concrete, roof of metal. PLAN: rounded apse with choir of one bay; vestries to north and south; chapel of 2 bays off north nave aisle; nave of 5 bays with west gallery; south aisle; nearly freestanding tower, 3 stages with broached spire, to south elevation, on join between nave and chancel. Revival of Early Gothic lancet style; Comper reproduced this style in the clerestory, but inside his vaulting has an almost Italian medieval feeling. EXTERIOR: east lancets to apse are sub-ordered with jamb shafts, divided by buttresses and 2 set backs to corbel table; plinth at sill level. Parish rooms in similar materials to north-east; single storey with gableted roof. To the south of the apse is a 2-storey, gable-facing stair tower. Tower of 3 stages with clasping corner and central buttresses to each face; ground-level round-arched lights, with a pair of trilobed lancets above; stage below bell stage with quatrefoil roundels and gableted niches; bell stage with 3 lancets; corbel table to spire eaves. Coupled trilobed lancets to each bay of nave and clerestory; timber-framed porch to south aisle, 2nd bay from west. Gable crosses to east and west gables. West elevation most unusual design: single pointed and sub-ordered entrance, flanked by strip buttresses terminating in gabled niches; 3 lancets to level above, lighting west gallery; just above centre lancet a 8-light wheel window. Corners of nave marked by broad setback buttresses terminating in pepper pot finials; west end of aisles with kneelers to lean-to roof. INTERIOR: chancel raised by 3 steps above nave; camber-arched king strut with 4 arches turning the round of the apse, each springing from wall shaft. Nave arcade responds abut wall pierced by chancel arch which is simply chamfered and rebated supported on corbelled shafts. Broadly proportioned nave with

quadripartite groin vaults; arcade rebated, sitting on cylindrical piers; shallow north and south aisles. FITTINGS include: Tudor-style painted screen and rood loft to north wall of chancel; baldacchino on clustered shafts, with trilobed arches, the spandrels painted with angels; at west end of chancel a Renaissance-styled altar; west gallery supported on 7-bay arcade in an English Renaissance style; north, or lady chapel with painted decoration to vault ribs; the latter has a polychromed statue of the Virgin and Child; organ in tower arch at east end of south aisle; octagonal font at west end; stone paving to nave consistent with the rest of Comper's alterations. Most glass clear, except for one aisle window dated 1914 and in the manner of Kempe. Brass chandeliers, 5 to each side, in an C18 style. HISTORICAL NOTE: although the rebuilding of war damage was quite extensive, Comper's vault increases the interest and value of the design especially when it is considered together with the extraordinary range of high quality C20 furnishings,

Listing NGR: TQ3401175471

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

470909

Legacy System:

LBS

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