St John the Evangelist's Church, Chichester

Chichester, the county town of West Sussex, is an ancient settlement at the junction of several Roman and medieval roads. Roman walls encircle the heart of the city, which is divided into quadrants by straight streets with a market at the centre. Its cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Chichester, makes Chichester a major ecclesiastical centre, as well as an important commercial and administrative centre. Within the city walls there were eight The southeastern quarter of the city centre, site of an ancient friary, was mostly developed in the 18th century and became known as New Town. It lacked an Anglican church until the early 19th century. At that time, a combination of urban growth…

-style proprietary chapel has a very large wooden pulpit and galleries at first-floor level.]] St John the Evangelist's Church is a broadly Classical-style building Sussex church historian David Beevers, writing in 1989, noted that "the survival of this typical Georgian Low-church interior from the enthusiasts of the [High church] Cambridge Camden Society [who dominated church design later in the 19th century] is surprising". The pulpit stands centrally in the nave, hiding the small chancel and sanctuary. An unusual refinement of the more common two-decker structure, a three-decker allowed different parts of the service to be read from different levels according to their importance.…

St John the Evangelist's Church was designated a Grade I Listed building on 5 July 1950. The church had a strong musical tradition, which is maintained in the 21st century by its regular use as a concert venue—especially during the annual Chichester Festivities arts and music festival.