The Chapel of St John the Evangelist (St John's Chapel) is an 11th-century Christian chapel of Norman architecture, in the White Tower of the Tower of London. [1] Built in 1080, St John's is the oldest surviving complete chapel from the early Norman period, and functions today as a chapel royal. It is overseen by the Canon of the nearby castle Church of St Peter ad Vincula, who is the chaplain of the Tower.
St John's Chapel was built as part of the original layout of the White Tower, which was constructed in 1077–97 as a keep or citadel, being the oldest part of William the Conqueror's powerful fortress. Constructed from Caen stone imported from France, St John's has a tunnel-vaulted nave with groin-vaulted aisles and an east apse, above and around which curve the gallery.[ citation needed ] Thick, round piers support unmoulded arches, notable for their simplicity, with simple carvings of scallop and leaf designs providing the only ornament. The programme of decoration was expanded by King Henry III, under whose orders three stained glass windows were installed in 1240.
Services are held in the chapel periodically during the year.[ citation needed ]
From 1100 to about 1312, Knights of the Bath were inducted by the purification ceremony of taking a ritual bath, and held vigil here the night before a royal coronation. The knights would then escort the monarch from the Tower to Westminster Abbey the following day. The ceremony was likely later observed in the larger church subsequently established in the Tower ward. [2]
During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, a mob gained access to the tower and found Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England, Simon Sudbury, at mass in the chapel. They dragged him outside to Tower Hill to execute him. [2]
The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace, was an English royal residence that was initially built by prince Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443. Over the centuries it took several different forms, until turned into a hospital in the 1690s. The palace was a place designed for pleasure, entertainment and an escape from the city. It was located at Greenwich on the south bank of the River Thames, downstream from London.
St Stephen's House is a theological college in Oxford, England affiliated with the Church of England. From 2003 to 2023 it was a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford.
The Henry VII Lady Chapel, now more often known just as the Henry VII Chapel, is a large Lady chapel at the far eastern end of Westminster Abbey, England, paid for by the will of King Henry VII. It is separated from the rest of the abbey by brass gates and a flight of stairs.
The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture. The Normans introduced large numbers of castles and fortifications including Norman keeps, and at the same time monasteries, abbeys, churches and cathedrals, in a style characterised by the usual Romanesque rounded arches and especially massive proportions compared to other regional variations of the style.
A royal peculiar is a Church of England parish or church exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese and the province in which it lies, and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the monarch.
A fan vault is a form of vault used in the Gothic style, in which the ribs are all of the same curve and spaced equidistantly, in a manner resembling a fan. The initiation and propagation of this design element is strongly associated with England.
The Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula is a Chapel Royal and the former parish church of the Tower of London. The chapel's name refers to the story of Saint Peter's imprisonment under Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem. Situated within the Tower's Inner Ward, its current building dates from 1520, although the church was likely established in the 12th century. This church for working residents was the second chapel established in the Tower after St John's, a smaller royal chapel built into the 11th century White Tower. A royal peculiar, under the jurisdiction of the monarch, the priest responsible for these chapels is the chaplain of the Tower, a canon and member of the Ecclesiastical Household. The canonry was abolished in 1685 but reinstated in 2012.
Coade stone or Lithodipyra or Lithodipra is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical statues, architectural decorations and garden ornaments of the highest quality that remain virtually weatherproof today.
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about 25 miles (40 km) west of central London. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed arches, rib vaults, buttresses, and extensive use of stained glass. Combined, these features allowed the creation of buildings of unprecedented height and grandeur, filled with light from large stained glass windows. Important examples include Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral. The Gothic style endured in England much longer than in Continental Europe.
St John the Baptist's Church is the former cathedral of Chester, Cheshire, England during the Early Middle Ages. The church, which was first founded in the late 7th Century by the Anglo Saxons, is outside Chester's city walls on a cliff above the north bank of the River Dee. It is now considered to be the best example of 11th–12th century church architecture in Cheshire, and was once the seat of the Bishop of Lichfield from 1075 to 1095.
St John the Evangelist's Church is in the village of Sandiway, Cheshire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church of Sandiway and Cuddington in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Middlewich. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
St John's is a hamlet on the fringes of Redhill, Surrey, England. The small elevated residential community occupies a conservation area encircled by Earlswood and the wooded Redhill Common, which is connected along two low to mid rise streets with typically woodland-style gardens to Reigate. St John's is in its wider definition one of the three ecclesiastical parishes that make up Redhill. The area around St John's school and church had small beginnings but at one time grew so rapidly it was thought that it was the nucleus of a new town.
The Anglican Bath Abbey Cemetery, officially dedicated as the Cemetery of St Peter and St Paul, was laid out by noted cemetery designer and landscape architect John Claudius Loudon (1783–1843) between 1843 and 1844 on a picturesque hillside site overlooking Bath, Somerset, England.
Old Sarum Cathedral was a Catholic and Norman cathedral at old Salisbury, now known as Old Sarum, between 1092 and 1220. Only its foundations remain, in the north-west quadrant of the circular outer bailey of the site, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the centre of modern Salisbury, Wiltshire, in the United Kingdom. The cathedral was the seat of the bishops of Salisbury during the early Norman period and the original source of the Sarum Rite.
The White Tower is a former royal residence, the old keep, at the Tower of London in England. It was built by William the Conqueror during the early 1080s, and subsequently extended. The White Tower was the castle's strongest point militarily, provided accommodation for the king and his representatives, and housed a chapel. Henry III ordered the tower whitewashed in 1240. Today the Tower of London is a museum and visitor attraction. The White Tower now houses the Royal Armouries collections.
The Church of St Nicholas in Norton in Hertfordshire was originally the parish church for the village of Norton, which today has become a suburb of Letchworth Garden City. The present building dates from about 1109 to 1119, with additions in the 15th century including the tower. Before the Reformation it was a stopping point on the pilgrim route to the Abbey of St Albans and the shrine there.
St Edmund's Church is the Roman Catholic parish church of Godalming, a town in the English county of Surrey. It was built in 1906 to the design of Frederick Walters and is a Grade II listed building. The church stands on a "dramatic hillside site" on the corner of Croft Road just off Flambard Way close to the centre of the town.
St John's Church is a heritage-listed Anglican church at Mundoolun Road, Mundoolun, City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by John Hingeston Buckeridge and built from 1901 to 1915. It is also known as Memorial Church of St John the Evangelist. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 26 November 1999.
St John's Church or the Church of Saint John the Evangelist is the parish church in Stratford, London, standing on Stratford Broadway, the main thoroughfare.