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St John's Church or the Church of Saint John the Evangelist is the parish church in
St John's Church or the Church of Saint John the Evangelist is the parish church in Stratford, London
Stratford is a town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. Until 1965 it was within the historic county of Essex. Part of the Lower Lea Valley, Stratford is situated 6 miles (10 km) east-northeast of Char ...
, standing on Stratford Broadway, the main thoroughfare.
The site was previously home to a "Forest Prison" that incarcerated those who committed offences against the Royal Forest of Waltham, which is now known as Epping Forest
Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...
. The gaol was built around 1620 and the building remained until 1827.
The church was built between 1832 and 1834 by Edward Blore in the Early English style
English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...
using grey brick. The most notable feature is a three-stage tower, surmounted by a spire
A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...
which is supported with flying buttress
The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...
es. It is a Grade II Listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. It was built as a chapel of ease to save worshippers the journey to the ancient parish church of All Saints West Ham; St John's Stratford became a separate ecclesiastical parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
in 1844. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was baptised
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
in the church as an infant in August 1844.
Part of St John's parish was split off in 1865 to provide a parish for St Paul's Church, Stratford, previously a mission church. In 1881 another part of St John's parish was also joined to parts of the parishes of All Saints and Emmanuel Church to form a new parish for the church of St James' Church, Forest Gate. The naturalist and social reformer Antonio Brady is buried in the churchyard in 1881; an extension to the chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
of the church was constructed in his memory in 1884. A memorial to the Stratford Martyrs was added to the churchyard in 1879. In World War II, the church crypt served as an air raid shelter for local people, despite bomb damage to the building itself. In 1961 St John's took over the parish of the deconsecrated Christ Church, Stratford
Christ Church, Stratford was a Church of England church on the corner of Union Street and High Street in Stratford, London. It was built in 1852 to serve the Stratford Marsh area and consecrated on 15 May that year. On 10 November 1852 it was assi ...
. A new extension was added in 1998.
Between 1988 and 1994, the church was the "home" of the influential post-rock group Bark Psychosis
Bark Psychosis are an English post-rock band/musical project from east London formed in 1986. They were one of the bands that Simon Reynolds cited when coining "post-rock" as a musical style in 1994, and are thus considered one of the key ban ...
, who rehearsed in the crypt. This would also serve as a recording space for the band, where they first recorded the single ''Scum'' (1992), followed by their debut album '' Hex'' (1994).
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