The church of St. John, Clerkenwell, having been closed for reparation
since the first Sunday in July, was opened for divine service on the
13th of November, 1825, by the Rev. W. E. L. Faulkner, M. A. rector of
the parish. The exterior of the present edifice is altogether unseemly.
It is frequently called St. John’s chapel, and has more the air of a
meeting for dissenting worship, than a structure of the establishment;
if it had not a sort of steeple with a bell, it might be mistaken for a
theatre; but the interior is in every respect befitting its
ecclesiastical use. It has spacious galleries, is well pewed below, and
thoroughly lighted, with a very commodious vestry. In these respects it
is creditable to the inhabitants who have now so judiciously fitted it
up, that it will not require more than usual cleaning for many years.
Still it is to be regretted, that a structure, essentially gothic,
should have been accommodated to modern architecture. The deviation
seems to have taken place on its appropriation to the use of the parish
of St. John, about a century preceding the reparation it has now
undergone.
St. John’s parish is distinct from the parish of St. James, although, as
regards their poor, they are under one management; and the parish of St.
James has, in other respects, an ascendancy, which formerly was the
cause of open dissention. This difference originated on the setting out
of the parish, the boundaries whereof are described by an entry in the
vestry-book, which states in what way the church became parochial.
Before referring to it, a glance may be taken of the annexed engraving.
It is from an original drawing of a _south_ view of the church in the
year 1508, and preserved in the Cotton collection. It is especially
curious, because it shows the old square tower, on the site whereof the
present church stands, with the great bell tower above, which is
rapturously described by Stowe, as will be mentioned presently. The
building with two windows between three buttresses, surmounted by
pinnacles, was anciently the library.
[Illustration: ~Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, in 1508.~]