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St John's Smith Square is set
in the heart of political London.
The Palace of Westminster is
a short walk away and the headquarters of the Conservative
Party is in Smith Square itself.
St John's church was built by
Thomas Archer between 1713 - 28 under the Fifty New Churches
Act of 1711, which aimed to combat the spread of Non-Conformism
to the established Church of England.
The building, with its four corner
towers and monumental façades, was described by the art historian
Sir Hugh Casson as one of the masterpieces of English Baroque
architecture. However, St John's has also had some critics,
with Queen Anne likening it to a footstool, and Charles Dickens
describing it as 'resembling some petrified monster, frightful
and gigantic, on its back with its legs in the air'.
The building dominates the square
and towers over the 18th century houses on its north side.
The north and south façades have Tuscan columns standing at
the top of flights of steps, and are flanked by tall, circular
towers. The less ornate east and west fronts have substantial
Venetian windows.
St John's was burned down in
1742, struck by lightning in 1773 and seriously damaged by
a German bomb in 1941.
The church was restored by Marshall
Sission in 1965 - 69 for use as a concert hall and for the
last 40 of its 270 years St John's has been a venue for classical
music concerts.
Its magnificent organ, built
in 1993 by Johannes Klais, stands in what was the altar end
before the war.
The church hosts a programme
of concerts, and the crypt, with its bar and restaurant, helps
to make St John's a popular music venue. The crypt also has
a display of historical photographs.
Admission charge
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