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

• 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

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)