St John on Bethnal Green is a Grade 1 listed building of international significance that has been at the centre of the vibrant parish of Bethnal Green since 1828. It is one of only three churches to be designed by the world-renowned architect Sir John Soane.
Distinctive and imposing from the outside, the simple interior of this important London landmark is home to a unique commissioned artwork, a site-specific contemporary re-imagining of The Fourteen Stations of The Cross by celebrated British artist Chris Gollon.
However invaluable St John’s and its contents are, recent structural surveys have highlighted the urgent need for renovation and restoration. The building has apparent signs of dampness and structural damage and has also had various alterations over the years, detracting from Sir John Soane’s original concept and vision.
In response, this Easter week, the Bishop of Stepney, together with Priest-in-Charge Darren Wolf and David Tregunna, Trustee Chris Gollon Estate, are launching a national call to action to support and raise funds for Phase One of a major renovation project for St John on Bethnal Green.
We are looking to raise £130,000 to fund an initial programme of work to determine what is needed at St John on Bethnal Green to preserve this building and make it fit for purpose for future generations to enjoy. We aim to have begun work on this vital restoration project by 2028, in time for the 200th anniversary of the consecration of the church.
Darren Wolf, Priest-in-Charge of St John on Bethnal Green said, “Our passion is to secure the church as a place of worship and a sanctuary for the local community. Swift action in Phase One of our Restoration Project will be essential to secure this for future generations, and to address the urgent challenges of water ingress and rising damp.”
Located on Bethnal Green Road, St John’s was the last of Sir John Soane’s three churches, which also include Holy Trinity, Marylebone and St Peter’s, Walworth. Commissioned by the Church Commissioners Act of 1818 and consecrated in 1828, St John’s is often described as one of Soane’s most idiosyncratic churches, particularly with reference to its unusual tower and steeple.
Constructed from London stock brick, St John’s has undergone several changes over the last 200 years. A hammer beam roof was added to the ceiling of the nave and gallery in 1870-1 after a fire destroyed the original Soane roof and plate tracery windows to replace the iron lattice damaged in the fire.
The church played a vital role in the biggest single civilian disaster of World War II and the Bethnal Green Tube disaster of 1943 in which 173 people perished. Bodies of the dead and wounded were brought to St John’s in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
Part of Tower Hamlets, St John’s is at the heart of one of England’s most diverse and deprived local authority areas, with an estimated 47.5% of children designated as living in relative poverty – the highest among all London boroughs. By ensuring the future of a much-loved building and making it more accessible for the public it serves, our hope is that St John will become a fitting centre for renewal and community in Bethnal Green for the next 200 years.
Chris Gollon’s Fourteen Stations of The Cross constitute a unique, one-of-a-kind, site-specific installation in the simple white interior of Sir John Soane’s church.
Commissioned by the church in 2000, the series was permanently installed at St John’s in 2009 in a service of consecration blessed by Richard Chartres, Bishop of London and was immediately received with public and critical acclaim. Direct in their visual language, with a bold palette of intense blue, acid yellow and black unifying the work in 14 acts into one startling composition, the invention and modernity of Gollon’s achievement astound.
The humanity of Gollon’s figures is partly derived from their evident authenticity. Gollon’s immediate family and friends modelled all the main characters, including his son as Jesus and his daughter as Mary. These aren’t idealised figures; they feel like living people who are immersed in an experience of almost unbearable tragedy.
Jackie Wullschläger, Chief Art Critic, The Financial Times, commented, “Like Spencer, Gollon dramatises the everyday in contemporary images and, depicting our clumsy, ridiculous ordinariness, brings alive for a modern, cynical audience the ghastly dissonance of this story of good and evil, sacrifice and humanity, answering on its own terms a 21st-century culture that regards the heroic as absurd.”
Dr Joanne Woolway Grenfell, Bishop of Stepney, said,” Chris Gollon’s Stations belong in the context of St John on Bethnal Green, their deeply human depictions of Jesus reflecting the humanity of local people who faithfully walk the way of sorrows with their Saviour. These Stations are no mere wall art but draw from and nurture the devotional life of the local church community.”
This easter a campaign to restore the historic building begins as it opens the doors to the public.©Russell Sach – 0771 882 6138
Sir John Soane (1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in Neo-Classical design. He was a professor at the Royal Academy and designed the Bank of England and Dulwich Picture Gallery.
One of the most influential and celebrated architects of the Regency era, Soane’s legacy includes the Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, situated in his former home and office and designed to display the artworks and architectural artefacts that he collected during his lifetime. Bequeathed to the nation by an act of Parliament in 1883, the museum is described in the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture as “one of the most complex, intricate, and ingenious series of interiors ever conceived”
Chris Gollon (1953 -2017) was a London-born artist who exhibited widely in the UK. His work is held in major public collections, including the British Museum and Huddersfield Art Gallery.
Gollon exhibited with Yoko Ono, David Bowie and Gavin Turk in ROOT, an exhibition of contemporary music and art created by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth (Chisenhale Gallery 1998)—another boundary crossing. Collaborations included working with classical virtuoso, Yi Yao (2014) and with singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy (2015 – 2017). In 2004, Gollon was invited to exhibit at St Paul’s Cathedral, with Bill Viola, Maggi Hambling, and Tracey Emin in ‘Presence: Images of Christ for the Third Millennium’.
Gollon was made a Fellow and First Artist in Residence at the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University (2009), working with some of the world’s leading thinkers on the Being Human project. A sensitive painter of women, Gollon’s series of paintings, ‘Incarnation, Mary and Women from the Bible,’ became a national touring exhibition in English cathedrals (2014 – 2016).
Publications include Tamsin Pickeral’s biography of Gollon, ‘Humanity in Art’ (2010). 2024, the documentary ‘CHRIS GOLLON: Life in Paint’ premiered at the Barbican, London and will be shown in New York in May 2025.