Description

POOLE

SZ09SW ASHLEY ROAD, Upper Parkstone
958-1/5/250 (North side)
Church of St John the Evangelist

II

Church. 1902-3. By Romaine Walker and Besant in eclectic style
combining Georgian, Decorated and Byzantine elements. Red
brick in English bond with Bath stone dressings and plain-tile
roofs.
PLAN: chancel, organ chamber and choir vestry to N of chancel,
vestry to S, nave, north and south aisles and S porch.
EXTERIOR: 2-bay chancel has 5-light E window with round-arched
head and hoodmould continued as string course either side.
Window has elaborate Decorated tracery: ogee-arched heads to
lights, further subdivided by 2 trefoiled tracery arches with
small encircled quatrefoil between them and pendant boss
below. 2 outer lights are grouped within round-headed
sub-arches with quatrefoil to head flanked by mouchettes.
Above sub-arches in head of window is multi-cusped quatrefoil
in circle flanked by mouchettes. The tracery of the sub-arches
is repeated in all the 2-light windows to the aisles, W end of
nave, E window of S vestry and N window of choir vestry.
Foundation stone below E window inscribed THIS STONE WAS LAID/
ON APRIL 17TH 1902/BY/ LADY WIMBORNE.
E end is flanked by stone-quoined angle buttresses with
trefoiled gablets and has stone-coped gable with kneelers and
foliated gable cross. Circular cinque-foiled window to either
side of sanctuary. Organ chamber and choir vestry form wing at
right angle to chancel across E end of N aisle. Vestry has
chamfered door on E side at N end with pointed-arched head
beside pair of small windows with roll-moulded surrounds,
round-arched heads and single hoodmould; 2-light window to N
end.
Vestry to S side of chancel continues S aisle of nave and has
2-light E window with similar tracery and hoodmould. Door to S
side with 1 order of shafts with small basket and foliage
capitals in Byzantine style, round-arched head, plain recessed
tympanum and hoodmould. Vestry has stone-coped gable with
kneeler to left. S slope of gable is interrupted by
stone-coped shoulder possibly for chimney stack or small
bellcote; stone quoined S angle buttress with trefoiled
gablets. Aisles have similar 2-light windows.
S porch has stone quoins, stone-coped gable, clock face to
gable above doorway with 1 order of shafts, Byzantine-style
capitals, roll moulded round-arched head and hoodmould;
1-light windows to sides with cusped round-arched heads and
hoodmoulds continued as string courses either side.
W end of nave breaks forward slightly and has pair of similar
2-light windows. Shallow gabled W porch with doorway which has
1 order of shafts, small Byzantine-style basket and foliage
capitals, roll-moulded round-arched head and recessed plain
tympanum.
Nave and aisles each have stone-coped gables with kneelers
outermost. Nave has foliated cross to E gable and cut-down
stone base of former bellcote to W gable. Chamfered plinth and
buttresses between aisle bays, those to S side with trefoiled
round-arched stone gablets. Similar angle buttresses to
aisles.
INTERIOR: exposed red brick walls with stone detailing. Nave
has 6-bay arcades, plain circular piers with moulded bases on
square plinths and capitals inspired by St Sophia,
Constantinople with square abaci and beasts to corners over
baskets. Beasts include doves and symbols of the Four
Evangelists. Round-headed arches with wreathed medallions to
spandrels on continuous stone panelling with regularly spaced
vertical ribs.
Boarded timber roof with deep cove and tunnel vault with
double-chamfered ribs at regular intervals and wrought-iron
ties. Aisles have boarded timber segmental tunnel-vaulted
roofs. Twin-shafted chancel arch with Byzantine-style capitals
and round-arched head.
Chancel has 2-bay arcades on square diagonally set brick piers
with detached stone shafts and similar capitals. Upper walls
treated in same way as nave. E window is flanked by twisted
colonnettes with acanthus capitals and Commandments on stone
tablets with twisted rope surrounds.
An early photograph hanging in the church shows the chancel
originally contained an apparently genuine Georgian timber
reredos below E window and the same width (since destroyed)
which may have determined the proportions and influenced the
style of the church.
Canon Basil Clarke, in manuscript notes deposited with Council
for the Care of Churches, wrote that the church was
consecrated 9 May 1903 and cost »5,260; builders Messrs
Jenkins and Son of Bournemouth and materials Milton red brick
with Cosham Down Bath stone dressings, Monks Park Bath stone
inside, and pews of cypress wood. He commented "The style is
most peculiar... the windows round-headed but filled with
somewhat outre tracery, the arcades Byzantine... We did not
like it much - it is of course horridly low".
The stylistic brew is certainly very unusual. The architects
did achieve, however, a fine interior on a very limited budget
by the standards of the day.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Newman J: Dorset: London:
1972-: 334; Clarke Canon B: Mss notes: 1957-1959).

Listing NGR: SZ0405092191

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26532566

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

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)