St John's Church, Blackpool

The parish church of Blackpool Saint John the Evangelist, or St John's Blackpool, is an

To cope with a growing congregation, it was decided to replace the church with a larger building. The smaller church of 1821 was demolished in 1877 and building of the new church commenced immediately. The foundation stone was laid by Blackpool's first mayor, Dr William Cocker, who had donated £1000 towards the cost of the construction. The building was completed in 1878.[7] The new church was consecrated on 25 June 1878 by James Fraser, the Bishop of Manchester.^[2] The present church was built in 1878 to a design by Garlick, Park and Sykes. It is constructed in the Early English style from yellow stone, with slate roofs and ashlar interiors.^[8] The tower is at the south west of the building and has four stages and angled buttresses which are topped with pinnacles and finials. On each wall of the tower are two tall Belfry louvres.^[9] St John's has a nave with low aisles, tall transepts and an apsidal chancel. The nave has cylindrical columns with circular caps. The chancel has a Gothic style screen and wooden panelling.^[9]

St John's was designated a Grade II listed building on 20 October 1983.^[9] The Grade II listing—the lowest of the three grades—is for buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest".^[10] After 100 years of use, the church was in need of repair and restoration work was carried out in 1986. Further renovation took place between 2000 and 2006 at a cost of £1.6 million. A community and conference centre were built, as well as a dedicated area for the homelessness charity Streetlife.^[2][7] The inside of the church now features a modern, comfortable worship space with several other rooms created around it.

Present day

Blackpool Church – St John's launched as an HTB resource church on 17 April 2022 after being added to the HTB Network.

The weekly Sunday gathering starts at 11am, doors open at 10.30am for hot drinks and pastries. The Sunday gathering has worship, prayer and a talk from the Bible and there are groups for children and young people.

There is a Communion service held at Beacon Church – in partnership with Blackpool Church – on Wednesdays at 11am which everyone is welcome to attend.

An Alpha course is held three times per year, once per term and is an opportunity to explore questions about faith in a safe, non judgemental environment.

There is also a weekly toddler group at the church for children aged 0–4 on Wednesdays at 10am. There are stories, crafts and singing and refreshments for children and parents / carers.

See also

• Listed buildings in Blackpool

References

Footnotes

Bibliography