Completed in 1826,
St John the Baptist Hoxton is a Georgian church in the Classical style
and is the only one built to the design of
Francis Edwards,
Sir John Soane's
foremost pupil. The building is a large example of a Commissioners' church,
retaining its floor plan intact as well as its galleries and its décor is
notable, particularly for its spectacular painted ceiling. It was executed
by the prominent architect
Joseph Arthur Reeve in the early 20th century.
The urban landscape has been a source of fascination, inspiration and a recurring theme throughout the work of
Caroline Nina Phillips. She contemplates what can be seen and the possibilities of what remains unseen. Phillips has loaned the church
two of her paintings which have been installed on the east wall of the church. ‘Liminality’ evokes a light drawing us through the darkness of an urban landscape - making us think perhaps of the kingdom of God and the dawning brightness of Christ dispelling all darkness. ‘Occupy’, depicts
St Paul’s Cathedral, but you can also make out the murky dome tents of the
Occupy protest of 2011 - reminding us of the poor, the marginalised, and that Christ also ‘became flesh and pitched his tent among us’.
After two years studying with men from the Dorset limestone quarries,
Mike Chapman opened his own studio in the summer of 1996 and in 2004 held his first solo exhibition at St Martins-in-the-Fields. His work is now in the collections of a number of institutions throughout the UK and in private collections both here and in America. His
memorial at St John's Hoxton, located in the Garden of Remembrance, is a hand drawn monolith, carved in an enormous Welsh slate, weighing over a tonne. It marks the site where ashes are placed in the churchyard.
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