Church of St John the Evangelist

About

St John's Church or the Church of Saint John the Evangelist is the parish church in Stratford, London, standing on Stratford Broadway, the main thoroughfare. The site was previously home to a "Forest Prison" that incarcerated those who committed offences against the Royal Forest of Waltham, which is now known as Epping Forest. The gaol was built around 1620 and the building remained until 1827.

The church was built between 1832 and 1834 by Edward Blore in the Early English style using grey brick. The most notable feature is a three-stage tower, surmounted by a spire which is supported with flying buttresses. It is a Grade II Listed building.

It was built as a chapel of ease to save worshippers the journey to the ancient parish church of All Saints West Ham; St John's Stratford became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1844. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was baptised in the church as an infant in August 1844. Part of St John's parish was split off in 1865 to provide a parish for St Paul's Church, Stratford, previously a mission church.

In 1881 another part of St John's parish was also joined to parts of the parishes of All Saints and Emmanuel Church to form a new parish for the church...