Description

CHATHAM

TQ7567NE RAILWAY STREET
762-1/4/29 (North West side)
29/10/52 Church of St John the Divine

II*

Church. 1820-21 by Sir Robert Smirke, 1863 apse by GM Hills.
Rock-faced limestone ashlar and dressings and a hipped slate
roof.
STYLE: Italianate.
PLAN: rectangular with recessed corners and a W tower.
EXTERIOR: projecting square apse has clasping paired
pilasters, entablature and pediment, with a moulded
round-arched window containing a Venetian window with 5 oculi
following the arch.
Plain plinth, plat band, first-floor sill and impost bands
carried over the windows, cornice and parapet; cambered heads
to ground floor and round-arched heads to first-floor windows,
blind windows each side of the apse.
8-bay N side, the W bay set back. 3-bay W end with the middle
set forward with a doorway with plain architrave and cornice
to a 2-leaf 6-panel door with flush panels; plain doorways to
outer bays, and round-arched upper windows, with a plain
square 2-stage tower with a clock to the lower one, and
round-arched louvred windows to the ashlar upper stage, with a
blocking course.
8-bay N side has a central porch with pilasters to an
entablature, and double panelled doors.
INTERIOR: not inspected but noted as having galleried sides
and end on fluted Doric columns and a moulded front, 2-centre
chancel arch on corbels, flanked by painted flat buttresses,
and a panelled ceiling. E window 1868 by Alexander Gibbs.
HISTORY: built as a Commissioners church.
(The Buildings of England: Newman J: West Kent and the Weald:
London: 1976-: 201; NMR: photograph: London).

Listing NGR: TQ7563267820

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17551463

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

• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)