St John the Baptist, Hoxton

The Church of St John the Baptist, Hoxton usually known as St John's Hoxton, is an Anglican parish church in the Hoxton area of the London Borough of Hackney.^[2]

Situated one mile north of the City of London on New North Road, nearby St John's Hoxton is Silicon Roundabout and also Aske Gardens, named after the parish's major benefactor, City haberdasher Alderman Robert Aske.

In 1826, population growth in London's East End led to St John's being established as a chapel of ease, within the ancient parish of Shoreditch.^[3] In 1830 it became the parish church of its own newly-created ecclesiastical parish within the diocese of London, though for civil purposes it remained part of Shoreditch, Middlesex.^[4]

In 1953 the benefice of St John's Hoxton was reunited with Christ Church, created in 1841 from the north part of the parish.

Dedicated to St John the Baptist, its name preserves the memory of Holywell Priory which was dissolved in 1539 by King Henry VIII.^[5]

In Victorian London the parish's charitable giving was recognised by social campaigners, such as the philanthropist Charles Booth, for its welfare work in a deteriorating inner-city environment.^[6] Many members of the church became missionaries in Africa and Asia, among them the first Bishop of Chota Nagpur, Jabez Cornelius Whitley, whose father, chaplain to the Haberdashers' Aske's Hospital School formerly located in Pitfield Street^[7][8] was the Revd Edward Whiteley (1798–1861).^[9] Whiteley was appointed the parish's first vicar by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers as patrons of the living and helped found what became London's largest savings bank (National Savings Bank)^[10] to give opportunities to the "local poor",^[11] as well as St John's National Schools^[12] which still thrive in India.

The maternal great-great-great-grandfather of Catherine, Princess of Wales,^[13] John Goldsmith (1827–1888) was married to Esther Jones at St John's Hoxton in 1850.^[14]

The present vicar, the Revd Graham Hunter,^[15] serves as a court member of the Haberdashers' Company and assists Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London.^[16]

The church is part of the HTB (Holy Trinity Brompton) Network and a member of the Evangelical Alliance.^[17]

St John's Hoxton featured on BBC Songs of Praise in 2025.^[18]

Completed in 1826, St John's is a Regency church in the classical style, and the only one built to the design of the celebrated architect, Francis Edwards,^[19] Sir John Soane's foremost pupil.

A large and elegant example of a Commissioners' church, its original floor plan remains intact as well as notable galleries and décor,^[20] including a stunning painted ceiling^[21] executed in the early 20th century by the ecclesiastical architect Joseph Arthur Reeve.^[22][23]

St John's Hoxton is a grade II* listed building.^[24]

Built and installed in 1915 by the firm of Thomas Sidwell Jones,^[25] the pipe organ sits in the choir gallery retaining its original late-Georgian wooden case with an elaborate façade displaying the arms of William IV.

Last restored in 1934 by Henry Speechly & Son,^[26] St John's organ is known to voice the following stops:

In St John's church tower hangs a ring of ten bells, cast at the nearby Whitechapel Bell Foundry.^[27]

• Geffrye Museum
• List of churches in the Diocese of London
• St Monica's Priory Church, Hoxton (RC)

• St. John's Hoxton official website
• www.city-academy.com
• Church Heritage Record @ www.churchofengland.org

Media related to St John the Baptist Church, Hoxton at Wikimedia Commons

51°31′50″N 0°5′0″W / 51.53056°N 0.08333°W / 51.53056; -0.08333