St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood

St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood
The Church, seen from Auckland Road
St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood Location of St John the Evangelist
51°24′41″N 0°04′48″W / 51.411504°N 0.080056°W / 51.411504; -0.080056Coordinates: 51°24′41″N 0°04′48″W / 51.411504°N 0.080056°W / 51.411504; -0.080056
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Modern Catholic
Website	www.stjohn-uppernorwood.org.uk
History
Dedication	John the Evangelist
Architecture
Architect(s)	John Loughborough Pearson
Style	Gothic revival architecture
Administration
Parish	Upper Norwood
Deanery	Croydon North
Archdeaconry	Croydon
Diocese	Anglican Diocese of Southwark
Clergy
Priest in charge	Fr. John Pritchard

The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Church of England church in Upper Norwood, a suburb of South London, in the United Kingdom. It is a Grade II* listed red brick Gothic Revival church which was built between 1878 and 1887 by the English architect John Loughborough Pearson (1817–97). The church is dedicated to the Christian saint, John the Evangelist.

In the 1870s, the London conurbation was steadily expanding into the rural county of Surrey and new suburban houses were built in the area of modern Upper Norwood, with dwellings ranging from houses for the more affluent businessmen to modest workers' housing being built over the former ancient Surrey woodland. A large, temporary iron church was built to provide a place of worship for the new area, which in October 1875 was moved to the site of the present church in Auckland Road. The Priests-in-charge were Rev Philip Kingswood and Rev Thomas Helmore.

Early in 1876 it became a parish church and the first vicar was Rev William Fairbairn La Trobe-Bateman, who began an initiative to clear the church's debts and raise funds to build a permanent church to replace the iron structure. The fundraising was supplemented by a memorial fund set up in memory of the vicar's wife, who died unexpectedly in 1878 from tuberculosis.

The parish engaged the services of John Loughborough Pearson, an eminent ecclesiastical architect who had already designed a number of churches in the Gothic Revival style which was at the height of fashion in Victorian Britain, including his most recent project in North London, the large-scale St Augustine's, Kilburn which he had completed in 1877. Pearson was to draw up plans for a building to seat 1000 people at Upper Norwood. The Foundation stone was laid on 6 May 1878 in a field, but building work could not commence until enough funds had been raised. The Church Commissioners contributed an additional £1000 on the condition that the building plans included a tower. In 1881, after a total of £7,156 pounds, 17 shillings and six-and-a-half pence had been raised, construction began; after six years of construction the building was consecrated on 30 April 1887. Church Commissioners' conditions were never met due to financial difficulty and the church to this day does not have a spire.