Church of St John-at-Hackney From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Church of St John-at-Hackney Portico and

tower of the Church of St John-at-Hackney Country United Kingdom Denomination Church of England Website St John-at-Hackney Architecture Architect(s) James Spiller Administration Parish Hackney Diocese Diocese of London Clergy Bishop(s) Richard Chartres Archdeacon Lyle Dennen Rector Rob Wickham The Church of St John-at-Hackney is situated in the London Borough of Hackney. I t was built in 1792, in an open field, north east of Hackney's medieval parish c hurch, of which only St Augustine's Tower remains. Separated by the southern ext ension of Lower Clapton Road, it looks north to the late Georgian Clapton Square . Contents 1 History 1.1 St Augustine's Church 1.2 Growing congregation 1.3 New church 1.4 Major fire damage 2 Current clergy 3 Other burials 4 References 5 External links History The Church of St John-at-Hackney was designed by James Spiller and built in 1792 . At this time, Hackney Parish was the largest in Middlesex. The vast, classical style building, on a Greek cross plan, can hold 2,000 people. The former churchyard is now a complex of gardens that was awarded Heritage Gree n Site Status in 2008. The building is Grade II* listed and houses monuments dat transferred from the former church and other more recent me ing from Tudor times morials. Stjohnathackney.jpg St Augustine's Church It is possible that a church stood here, in this small but wealthy village north of the City of London, before the Norman Conquest, but no records survive of an y building before 1275 and any prior church would have been a part of the parish of Stepney. From the 14th century the church was dedicated to St Augustine of H ippo until, after 1660, it was rededicated to St John the Baptist, later becomin g more commonly known as St John-at-Hackney.[1] In the 13th century, much of the land around Hackney formed part of the possessi ons of the Knights Templars. When the order was disbanded, its possessions were passed to the Order of St John of Jerusalem, who had a mansion on Church Street. The Order of St John began with the First Crusade to the Holy Land in 1095. Whe

n the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, the Order founded a hospice. In 1113, the Po pe recognised it as an independent religious order of monks and nuns, The Order of St John, whose special task was to care for the sick. At the dissolution of t he monasteries, the lands passed to the Crown, and were parcelled amongst Tudor nobles, including Thomas Sutton and Ralph Sadleir.[