Listed Building record TQ 76 NE 1089 - CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE DIVINE

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Church consisting of chancel, north and south vestries, nave with north and south galleries, west entrance flanked by stair halls and west tower. The building is of brick faced with coursed blocks of Kentish ragstone with limestone dressings, the roofs are of grey slate. The church was built in 1819-21, it was designed by Robert Smirke and built by Siddon and Sons. A short chancel by G M Hills was added in 1863 and the church was reprdered to give space for a choir in the nave. The present vestries were built in 1905.

Location

Grid reference TQ 7563 6781 (point)
Map sheet TQ76NE
County KENT
Unitary Authority MEDWAY

Map

Type and Period (1)

Full Description

The following text is from the original listed building designation:

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 (1)

Historic England archive material: BF098832 ST JOHN THE DIVINES CHURCH, RAILWAY STREET, CHATHAM


<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

Sources/Archives (1)

  • <1> Map: English Heritage. List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest.

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Record last edited

Sep 17 2025 9:21PM