Description

TORQUAY

SX9163 MONTPELLIER ROAD
885-1/17/187 (North side)
20/11/52 Parish Church of St John the
Evangelist
(Formerly Listed as:
MONTPELLIER TERRACE
Church of St John the Evangelist)

GV I

Parish church. 1861-73 to the designs of GE Street, west tower
completed 1884-85 by AE Street to his father's designs. Lady
chapel decorated 1888 by JD Sedding (Pevsner). Local grey
crazed limestone with Ham Hill dressings; slate roof; pierced
crested ridge tiles. Description approximate as interior and
exterior scaffolded on survey for major repair scheme.
PLAN: Chancel with south Lady chapel; nave with clerestory
above 5-bay south aisle; south-west 4-stage tower.
EXTERIOR: 2-bay chancel with lower roof than nave and flying
buttresses on the south side. Two 2-light Geometric Decorated
windows with a cinquefoil with a roundel in the head. Lean-to
chapel between buttresses with two 3-light Decorated windows
with head trefoils. South aisle has a moulded string at sill
level, a corbel table and five 2-light Geometric Decorated
traceried windows. Moulded-arched doorway in eastern bay with
toothed moulding. Buttressed nave with 4 clerestory windows of
4 lancets under superordinate arches.
Striking saddleback tower to west with a triple chamfered
doorway and inner doorway with detached shafts. Triple lancet
window above doorway, above that blind recesses contain slit
windows. High transomed richly-moulded belfry window with
pairs of trefoil-headed lights above and below the transom.
Rose window in gable of tower.
INTERIOR: Spectacular, high quality interior. Internal walls
unplastered. 5-bay arcades with clustered shafts of banded
local polished limestone; stone-vaulted chancel with moulded
ribs and polychromatic banding to the infill. Chancel enriched
with mosaics: trefoil-headed frame to reredos with carved
figures by Earp in deep relief; chancel walls with blind
marble arcading; marble and tile flooring.
Copies of original Burne Jones paintings on north and south
walls; exceptionally fine 1865 Morris and Company east window;
wrought-iron and brass sanctuary rail; chancel screen also of
wrought-iron and brass with gabled arch into chancel;
wrought-iron screen between chancel and south chapel.
Nave fittings include octagonal freestone and local marble
pulpit with mosaic inlay and a wrought-iron balustrade to the
stairs. Octagonal local limestone and Italian marble font with
trefoil-headed blind panels, mosiacs and a splendid AC Street
wrought-iron font cover on a bracket. Full immersion font in
local Torquay marble. Salviati mosaic panels in nave.
Very fine set of STAINED GLASS: Burne Jones designed west
window, other glass by Clayton & Bell.
HISTORY: "One of the leading centres of late C19
Anglo-Catholicism" (Pevsner). Detailed account of building,
including contractors, craftsmen, costs etc in RJE Boggis,
History of St John's, Torquay (1930).
(Boggis RJE: History of St John's Church, Torquay: 1930-;
Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989:
P.849).

Listing NGR: SX9187963659

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Parish Church of St John the Evangelist at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17528025

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)