St John   brook road, wood green

The story of St. John's began at the end of the last century. Wood Green was fast developing into an important suburb - but there were problems on the way. Social conditions in parts of Wood Green spelt a real challenge. The local Press frequently reported cases of individuals being molested, ladies on their own being fearful on semi-main roads, with certain thoroughfares always patrolled by the police in pairs.

The Church was not slow to respond to the challenge, building a mission in one of the worst affected areas, not only to save souls but to improve the social and material surroundings as well. The foundation stone of St. John's (*) was laid by Fr J. Thomas, Vicar of Wood Green, on 5th March 1898, and the completed Church dedicated by the Bishop of Stepney just one month later on 25th April. As St. Michael's Centenary History recalls in 1944; "St. John's is a beautiful little House of God, unattractive perhaps from the exterior, but the interior invites, welcomes and pleases".

Invite and welcome it certainly did. In the first ten years its activities outshone those of the Parish Church: it showed St. Michael's the way in 1900 by issuing a Parish Magazine, it had Sunday Schools, a Men's Club, Girls Club, Lads Club, Mothers Meeting, Temperance Society and the St. John's Loan and Investment Society - all in 1900. Within a further year or two it was holding a Children's Service on Sunday evenings in the Western Road Board School, open-air Gospel Meetings on Wednesday and Sunday evenings during the Summer months, a Christian Endeavour Society, a Children's league and a branch of the Church Missionary Society.

During the Second World War, with the world living in the shadow of the bomb, St. John's was used for Midnight Mass instead of St. Michael's because of the black-out regulations. And when the old Salvation Army building in Mayes Road suffered bomb damage, the Salvationist congregation joined up for St. John's Sunday evening service, complete with their band.

St. John's was well served by a succession of clergy and Ministers. Fr S B Rees was the first Priest-in-Charge until 1916, Fr A Chandler until 1926 and Fr H E Nuttall until 1929. The Church Army took over under the control of Fr Midwinter at St. Michael's in 1929 with Capt C.F. Mills appointed as Evangelist-in-charge. It was during their time that the two halls at the rear of the church were utilised as a Church Army social centre - a community church in a community that needed it.

Towards the end the little Church of St. John's, in the shadow of the gas works, showed signs of outliving its usefulness - it had done the job it was built for, and very well. Surviving members of the old congregation remember going there out of a sense of duty, relieved when the decision was taken to close down and move on.

* the Apostle or the Baptist? no-one ever knew