St John the Evangelist's Church, St Leonards-on-Sea

St Leonards-on-Sea was founded as a new town by builder and speculator James Burton in 1827. It was built on a sloping, well-wooded seafront location just to the west of the ancient port of Hastings, and immediately became a fashionable resort and residential area—rivalling its larger neighbour by the mid-19th century. Burton founded a parish church on the seafront in 1831 (St Leonard's Church), and another (St Mary Magdalene's Church) opened in 1858. Both catered mainly for fashionable visitors and richer residents: pew rents were charged, for example. The growing town's many artisans, manual labourers, shopkeepers and other working-class people, and the large number of workers brought in…

Arthur Blomfield's church of 1881 was built in his preferred Early English Gothic Revival style, mostly in red brick with some Bath Stone dressings. The arcade-flanked nave had five and a half bays—an arrangement also seen and his design for this was closer to Gothic principles than any of his other postwar churches Red brick was the chosen building material inside and out, although yellow bricks were used in places as a contrast The church has a 16th-century painting of the Adoration of Jesus by Ortolano Ferrarese. Many internal fittings, such as the lectern, choir stalls and fixtures from the Lady chapel, came from Blomfield's church.

St John the Evangelist's Church was listed at Grade II* by English Heritage on 14 September 1976. As of February 2001, it was one of 13 Grade II* listed buildings, and 535 listed buildings of all grades, in the borough of Hastings. It is one of several listed churches in St Leonards-on-Sea. Christ Church, its former mother church, is also listed at Grade II*, as is St Peter's Church in the Bohemia area of the town; and St Leonard's Anglican church, St Leonard's Baptist Church, the Greek Orthodox St Mary Magdalene's Church, the Roman Catholic Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs and the former St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church each have Grade II status. The church…