Church of St John-at-Hackney

Church of St John-at-Hackney
Portico and tower of the Church of St John-at-Hackney
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	stjohnathackney.org.uk
Architecture
Architect(s)	James Spiller
Administration
Parish	Hackney
Diocese	Diocese of London
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Richard Chartres
Rector	Rev Al Gordon

The Church of St John-at-Hackney is situated in the London Borough of Hackney. It was built in 1792, in an open field, north east of Hackney's medieval parish church, of which only St Augustine's Tower remains. Separated by the southern extension of Lower Clapton Road, it looks north to the late Georgian Clapton Square.

The Church of St John-at-Hackney was designed by James Spiller and built in 1792. At this time, Hackney Parish was the largest in Middlesex. The vast and classical style brick building, on a Greek Cross plan, can hold around 2,000 people.

The former churchyard is now a complex of gardens that was awarded Heritage Green Site status in 2008. The building is Grade II* listed and houses monuments dating from Tudor times – transferred from the former church – and other more recent memorials.

It is possible that a church stood here, in this small but prosperous village north of the City of London, before the Norman Conquest, but no records survive of any building before 1275 and any prior church would have been a part of the parish of Stepney. From the 14th century the church was dedicated to Saint Augustine of Hippo until, after 1660, it was rededicated to Saint John the Baptist, later becoming more commonly known as St John-at-Hackney.

In the 13th century much of the land around Hackney formed part of the possessions of the Knights Templar. When the order was disbanded its possessions were passed to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who had a mansion on Church Street. The Order of St John began with the First Crusade to the Holy Land in 1095. When the crusaders captured Jerusalem, the order founded a hospice. In 1113, the Pope recognised it as an independent religious order of monks and nuns, The Order of St John, whose special task was to care for the sick. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the lands passed to the Crown and were parcelled amongst Tudor nobles, including Thomas Sutton and Ralph Sadler.