About

St. John's Church was started in 1784 and completed in 1787. It was originally a cathedral and served as the Anglican Cathedral of Calcutta till 1847.

Its main entrance is on the west, through a one-and-a-half-storey high, 12m x 8m porch. The porch has 14 pillars grouped into three clusters of two each on the south and north, with an additional two pillars one each on the north-eastern and south-eastern corners of the porch. The transepts are in the form of open verandas with eight Corinthian columns rising up to the roof of the second floor, with two clustered on the eastern end, and two on the western, with the remaining spread evenly. The rear of the church has six columns rising up to the second floor. Eight large french windows and a corresponding set of compass-headed windows lined above them on the northern and southern walls, provide ample light to the interior of the church.
The current entrance on the west, the apse on the east, and the pair of galleries on the north and south forming the transept, are later-day additions. The original Doric columns were also replaced by Corinthian columns during later alterations. There were originally three balconies in the church, on the north, south, and the west above the entrance, of which only the western one now survives.

An elaborate mosaic floor is at the entrance of the church, while seven stately Doric columns line the aisle on the north and south, leading up to an altar with a curved rear wall with three paintings - the Birth of Christ in the center, Jesus Preaching to the masses on the left, and Jesus Missing from his tomb after the crucifixion on the right. Images of angels, holding scrolls, separate the three panels of this triptych.
A set of stained-glass windows depicting episodes from the life of Jesus Christ, such as the birth of Jesus, his sermon, his crucifixion, the Ascension, and the Baptism of Christ - can be seen on the eastern wall of a chapel on the south of the main altar.
A painting of The Last Supper by Johann Zoffany, painted in the year 1787, occupies the northern side of the altar. Zoffany used real life subjects for the various faces in the painting - drawing from the elite of Calcutta society of his times - a Greek priest, Father Parthenio was used for Jesus, W.C. Blacquiere the police magistrate of Calcutta was selected for John, and the auctioneer William Tulloh was used for Judas.
A grand, and gaily coloured organ stands to the north of the altar. A set of mirrors around the pipe organ, allowed the organ player to see the choir master in reflection. This helped the organ player who sits with his back to the congregation to get the cue to start playing.
A number of memorial tablets are seen on the inside walls of the church.
The vestry, on the right as one enters the church from its western entrance, has, among other vintage items, a portrait of Warren Hastings, his chair, his mantelpiece clock. The room has a portrait of Zoffany as well, along with portraits of several eminent persons associated with the church over time.

The church was built at the site of a graveyard, and one can still see a number of graves and memorials in the church grounds. The most eminent of these is the grave of Charlotte Canning which is in the verandah on the west. Another notable mausoleum is the one for Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, and his wife, and two of his daughters. William Hamilton, the surgeon who cured Emperor Farukhsiyar There are a number of other tablets and gravestones surrounding this mausoleum. A tall gazebo with twelve columns on a circular base, and a hemispheric dome on the north-west of the tomb commemorates the British lives lost in the second Rohilla War of 1794. This memorial was designed in the style of the Temple of Aeolus by Sir William Chambers. Further to the west of Job Charnock's mausoleum is a smaller domed gazebo which is the grave of Begum Francis Johnson.

The churchyard also has the Black Hole of Calcutta Monument close to the western boundary wall. This monument was intended as a memorial of the British captives who were stuffed into a small room in the original Fort William by the forces of Siraj-ud-daula, the Nawab of Bengal upon his conquest of Fort William in 1756, leading to death by suffocation of a large number of the prisoners. The original monument that stood at the site of the old Fort William, was lost, and a replacement was commissioned by Lord Curzon and placed near the Writers' Building. It was moved to its present location in 1940.

There is a second St. John's Church in Calcutta, on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, named after St. John, the Evangelist, who wrote one of the four Gospels. It is of much more recent vintage. It was called the Cemetery Chapel when it was built in 1902. It was canonically erected as a parish in 1903. Its original purpose was a railway chaplaincy.

Architecture

The church was designed and built by architect James Agg.

It is modeled after St. Martin in the Fields, London

Trivia

The land the church stands on was gifted by Maharaja Nabo Kishen Bahadur of Sobhabazar.

The foundation stone of the church was laid by Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India, on 6th April, 1784.

The church is built of brick and stone and is locally referred to as "Pathore Girja" (Stone Church).

Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, the then Bishop of Calcutta, died on the 8th of July 1822, and is buried under the church altar.