St John's Church, Waterloo
| St John's Church, Waterloo | |
|---|---|
.JPG)
St John’s Church in 2010
|
|
| Location | Waterloo Road, London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Churchmanship | Liberal Catholic |
| Website | stjohnswaterloo.org |
| History | |
| Founded | 1822 |
| Dedication | St John the Evangelist |
| Dedicated | 3 November 1824 |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Active |
| Functional status | Parish church |
| Architect(s) | Francis Bedford |
| Years built | 1822–1824 |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Waterloo, St. John with St. Andrew |
| Deanery | Lambeth North |
| Archdeaconry | Archdeaconry of Lambeth |
| Episcopal area | Kingston Episcopal Area |
| Diocese | Diocese of Southwark |
| Clergy | |
| Bishop(s) | The Rt Revd Richard Cheetham |
| Vicar(s) | The Revd Canon Giles Goddard |
| Assistant priest(s) |
|
| Curate(s) | The Revd Jeffrey Risbridger |
St John's Church, Waterloo, is an Anglican Greek Revival church in South London, built in 1822–24 to the designs of Francis Octavius Bedford. It is dedicated to St John the Evangelist, and with St Andrew's, Short Street, forms a united benefice.
The church is located in Waterloo, opposite the London IMAX, close to Waterloo station and the Waterloo campus of King's College London. In 1818, when the country was settling down into a period of peace after the Napoleonic Wars and the population was beginning to expand rapidly, Parliament decided to allocate a sum not exceeding a million pounds for the building of additional churches in populous parishes and “more particularly in the Metropolis and its Vicinity.” Of this sum, the Commissioners for Building New Churches appropriated £64,000 in 1822 for the needs of the parish of Lambeth. It was decided that a new church should be built on the Waterloo Bridge approach, with a piece of ground on the east side of the road to be purchased from the Archbishop of Canterbury and his lessee and the sub-lessee, Gilbert East and a man named Anderson.
The Church of St John was built to the designs of the architect Francis Octavius Bedford in 1824. Bedford designed three other churches for the Commissioners, St George’s, Camberwell, St Luke, West Norwood and Holy Trinity, Newington. They were all built in the same Greek style inspired by Bedford’s background as a well-respected Greek scholar and antiquarian. Bedford’s churches were fiercely criticised by contemporary critics at a time when the tide was turning away from the Greek revival towards Gothic. St John’s however gained more critical appreciation mainly because of its fine spire which used classical detail to build up a more traditional English parish church shape.
The ground was very swampy, consisting in part of a pond, and the advice of John Rennie was sought as to the most suitable type of foundation. His recommendation that piling should be used under all the walls was adopted with such success that, after the lapse of 125 years, heavy damage by bombing and ten years' exposure to the weather, the walls were still strong and sound enough to be used in the renovated church.
...
Wikipedia