Description

SUNDERLAND

NZ3955 ASHBROOKE CRESCENT
920-1/16/7 (West side)
08/05/50 Church of St John and attached hall
(Formerly Listed as:
ASHBROOKE CRESCENT
(West side)
St John's Methodist Church and Hall
adjoining St John's Methodist Church)

GV II

Formerly known as: St John's Methodist Church ASHBROOKE ROAD.
Wesleyan Methodist, now Methodist, church with hall attached.
1887-8 and hall c1907 by Robert Curwen; main contractors JH
Thorp and sons, Leeds. Rock-faced sandstone with ashlar
sandstone dressings and interior, including Prudhoe stone for
tower and Denwick for interior. Roof of graduated Lakeland
slate.
EXTERIOR: geographical W is ritual E. Chancel, 5-bay nave with
aisles and paired transepts, SW tower (actual NE) and NW porch
(SE). Meeting rooms in undercroft to chancel using fall of
ground; corridor link from ritual NE to hall. Early English
style. Ritual E elevation has paired lights to undercroft,
5-light chancel window under gable; at right, mullioned lights
to undercroft and trefoil-headed lights to corridor with
central round stair tower with conical roof. Hall to right of
this. Nave transepts have 3-light windows over 3 lancets in
paired gables. Aisles have dripstring over lancets in bays
defined by buttresses. N aisle has gabled porch with 5 small
stepped lancets over boarded doors with elaborate hinges in
many-moulded arch with nookshafts; ball-flower stops to
hoodmould. Nave clerestory has paired 2-light windows with
geometric tracery and dripmoulds; shallow coped buttresses.
Elevation to Ashbrooke Road, ritual W, has gabled canopy over
large arch to paired trefoil-headed surrounds of doors,
similar to N door; row of lancets behind gable. Large 5-light
window above; pinnacle at left of gable and row of lancets in
set-back N porch. At right, a 4-stage tower with door in
first, 3 lancet slits in second, arcaded lancets in third, and
tall paired belfry lancets above. Octagonal stone spire has
corner pinnacles with spirelets flanking large lucarnes, bands
of carved decoration, and slender high lucarnes. Plinth, angle
buttresses, sill strings and ashlar jambs throughout, and
stone gable coping with finials. Corridor link to hall has
central gabled entrance and 3-light mullioned windows. Hall
projecting at left has pent porch, with diagonal buttresses,
to front gable.
INTERIOR: church interior plaster with much ashlar; hammer
beam roof on corbelled wall shafts with iron ties, and boarded
between arched wind braces. High chancel arch on ringed
corbelled shafts with stiff leaf capitals; arcade of moulded
arches on round piers with stiff leaf capitals; transverse
arches to aisles. W and transept galleries. Chancel has blind
arch to N, organ arch to S with screen.
High quality furnishings throughout include pulpit and reading
desk on stone pedestals, with remarkable pulpit handrail of
brass in form of serpent, head pointing down; brass and
cast-iron Communion rail with sunflower and leaf patterns;
choir pews with carved ends and nave pews with blind tracery.
Glass includes small brightly-coloured lancet of 1888 in N
transept to son, aged 9, of first minister; E window
commemorating TC Squance (d.1897), with scenes from life of
Christ; W window of high quality to JW Taylor, with scene of
Crucifixion across all lights.
(Corfe T and Milburn G: Buildings and Beliefs: Sunderland:
1984-: 18; Milburn G et al: St John's Ashbrooke 1888-1988:
Sunderland: 1988-: 16-35).

Listing NGR: NZ3955155874

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26502226

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.

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  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
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