Patrick Comerford
One of the many churches I saw during my recent visit to Watford in Hertfordshire is the Church of Saint John the Evangelist on Sutton Road, and I regret that I was only able to see it from the outside without seeing the interior.
Saint John’s Church in Watford was designed by the architect Eley Emlyn White (1854-1900) of Christopher and White. Saint John’s is a Grade II listed church, recognised for its architectural and historical significance. It is a tall stone Gothic church with rubble stone walls, and its story goes back more than a century and half.
When Saint Mary’s Church in the centre of Watford was being restored extensively in 1871, an iron building was erected as a temporary church. When Saint Mary’s reopened, the iron building was no longer needed and it was moved to Sutton Road in 1873 to become Saint John’s.
The temporary structure could hold a congregation of 450 people, but it had its flaws. The tin roof was notoriously leaky, and local people sought a more permanent solution.
A new building was planned and a foundation stone was laid on 17 July 1891. The church was built in 1891-1893, was consecrated by John Wogan Festing, Bishop of St Albans, on 19 July 1893, and was dedicated to Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist.
Saint John’s was designed by Eley Emlyn White of Christopher and White in a style reminiscent of that of John Loughborough Pearson (1817-1897), the architect of Truro Cathedral.
White designed Saint John’s in a Gothic Revival style, characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and intricate stonework. It has rubble stone walls and an overall slate roof with a slim lead fleche over the chancel arch. There is a four-bay nave, a slightly narrower three-bay chancel, and six bay aisles ending one bay short of the east end. There is a west narthex with a gabled a south-west porch.
There is also a small gabled porch in the south aisle. There are square turrets that are panelled and with steep pyramid caps at each corner of the nave and at the east corner of aisles. The buttresses have set-offs at the aisles, the narthex and the chancel.
The east window has three lancets while the three-light west window has quatrefoils in the head and is flanked by single lancets. The south-west porch has a moulded arch, mouldings dying into piers, and five stepped lancets above the porch are cut across by a string course.
I understand the church is equally impressive, with an open timber nave roof, a stone vaulted chancel and clerestory openings, a large stone reredos and an elaborate, intricately carved timber rood screen, designed by Sir John Ninian Comper. The pipe organ was built by JW Walker & Sons in 1911.
The tower and spire designed by White was never built, and a more modest belfry was erected instead. White’s original plans show the tower and spire would have been more than double the height of the church as it was built.
Over the years, Saint John’s has received many gifts, including fine silver plate, vestments, copes, stations of the cross, crib figures and statues. A notable gift is the statue of the Virgin Mary, which adds to the serene and contemplative atmosphere.
Saint John’s was designed to be a chapel-of ease to Saint Mary’s Church, serving people who lived on the Sutton-Sotheron-Estcourt estate and in the Waterfields area. Saint John’s became a parish church in its own right in 1904. It soon became one of the leading Anglo-Catholic churches.
The architect Eley Emlyn White was in partnership with John Thomas Christopher (1829-1910), who lived in Watford for a time. Christopher and White were based at 6 Bloomsbury Square, London, and they had a number of projects in Watford, including alterations to Saint Mary’s Church and new-build housing in Nascot and Watford Heath. Christopher and White also designed Saint Matthew’s church in Grandpont, Oxford; Saint John’s at Watford; and repairs to Saint Anne’s in Siston, Gloucestershire.
Eley Emlyn White was born in 1854 in Hampstead, the third child of John Thomas White, a solicitor and landowner, and his wife Emma (née Eley). His unusual first name comes from his mother’s family; she was connected to the families at Oxhey Grange and Eley Brothers, a still firm of cartridge manufacturers established in the early 19th century.
White spent his early life in Hampstead, and by 1871 the family was living in Watford at Cassio Bridge House. He was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1874 to study architecture. He was articled to the established London architect John Thomas Christopher and was also a clerk for a year in the office of the Gothic Revivalist architect William Burges (1821-1881), whose first major commission had been Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork in 1863.
White was influenced by Burges’s utopian designs, which included Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch in South Wales.
After practising independently for two years, White travelled for 14 months on a Royal Academy travelling studentship. He was then invited to become John Thomas Christopher’s partner in his architectural business, renamed Christopher and White.
While he was living in Brasted, Kent, White married Mary Evelyn Higins in 1881; she had been born at sea, off Malta, in 1860. The couple lived in Hampstead, before moving to St John’s Wood and later to Gower Street, London. In the same year as his marriage, White designed Innage House at 43-45 Park Road, Watford, for GE Lake. It was an impressive red-brick wide-fronted three-storey house with an arched entrance. Several years later, White designed Saint John’s Church in Watford.
But White’s private life was turbulent, and he and Mary decided to live apart. He left their marital home in the 1890s and moved to lodgings in Cedar Mansions, Kensington.
There he met Marie Gibson, a 21-year-old actress. They met regularly after her night-time theatrical performances at the Empire Theatre and he brought her back to his lodgings, introducing her as his niece to the housekeeper, Mrs Shea, who never believed this. White wanted Marie Gibson to live with him and, although she declined on the basis of impropriety, they continued to meet.
Then, on 2 March 1900, as Marie Gibson was reading a book in his lodgings, White brought out his revolver and shot her in the face before shooting himself in the head. He died instantly, aged 47. The bullet aimed at Marie Gibson entered the book she was reading before hitting her. She survived, but lost an eye, and later said White had threatened to shoot her once before.
White was 47. He left a note apologising to his wife Mary for his behaviour: ‘I do not intend continuing a life I dislike as I am not happy. I am very sorry that I have acted so badly to you, for you were a good little wife.’
The first priest-in-charge of Saint John’s was the Revd J Henry White, who was the priest-in-charge of the tin church (1873-1893) and then of Saint John’s (1893-1898). His successor, John Manwaring Steward (1874-1937), was priest-in-charge 1898-1904. Later, he joined the Melanesian Mission as a missionary priest, and became the fifth Bishop of Melanesia (1919-1928). He is listed in the Calendar of Saints of the Church of the Province of Melanesia.
Saint John’s Church today is the spiritual home of a thriving community in Watford, offering a place of worship and community close to the town centre. Over the years, it has undergone several restorations, including the cleaning and restoration of the chancel and sanctuary in 1961 and the nave and aisles in 1966. The exterior stonework was restored in 1973 to mark the church’s centenary.
The Revd Corniel Quak has been the Vicar of Saint John’s since last year (20 June 2024). He studied at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, and before moving to Watford he was Assistant Curate at Saint Saviour’s Church, St Albans.
• Saint John’s has a variety of services and events. The weekly Parish Mass with hymns is at 10:30 on Sundays, and Holy Communion is celebrated every Friday at 10 am. Other activities include Messy Church on the first Saturday of each month from 11 am to 1 pm, a Breakfast Club and Sunday School every Sunday.
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