The magnificent church of St John the Evangelist was designed by architect Thomas Archer as part of the ‘Commission for Building Fifty New Churches’ of 1710. St John’s was the most elaborate of all, with construction lasting 14 years, from 1714 to 1728, and costing the princely sum of £40,875 (approximately £5.2m today).

For over 200 years, St John’s Smith Square served as a parish church, though not without incident. In 1742 a major fire led to extensive restoration and modification to Archer’s design. In 1815 the church was struck by lightning, causing subsidence to the towers, and in the early twentieth century it was the target of a Suffragette bomb plot. Ironically, in 1928, the church held Emmeline Pankhurst’s funeral. 

Perhaps heralding the future musical life of St John’s Smith Square, in September 1901 Edith Hockey and Robert Britten were married here. Twelve years later, they had a son, Benjamin, who as an adult would record here with the Wandsworth School’s Boys Choir. 

Perhaps the most dramatic night in St John’s history was 10 May 1941, the final night of the Blitz, when a direct hit from an incendiary bomb gutted the church. After the war it lay as a ruin and there was talk of turning the site into a car park. This galvanised the local people, under the leadership of Lady Parker of Waddington, to raise the funds to buy the site and commission Marshall Sisson to lead the restoration to Archer’s original designs. When the work was completed in 1969, St John’s Smith Square was re-born as one of the finest concert halls in London.

Our grand opening concert was given by Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge (who returned in 1989 for our 20th birthday gala). There have been many other highlights over the years – the UK premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Stimmung (with Stockhausen himself on sound projection); world premieres of works by Boulez, Birtwistle, Copland and Tippett by the London Sinfonietta; William Walton conducting his own 70th birthday concert; Pierre Boulez and Daniel Barenboim conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra; an 84-year-old Sir Adrian Boult conducting the English National Orchestra; and Morton Feldman performing alongside Harrison Birtwistle and John Tilbury for BBC Radio.

We’ve also hosted the Menuhin School Concert, featuring students Nigel Kennedy and Melvin Tan; a 21-year-old Simon Rattle with the Salomon Orchestra; Plácido Domingo, Teresa Berganza and Ileana Cotrubaş recording Bizet’s Carmen with Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra; Philip Glass giving a chamber organ recital, and Lutosławski conducting the Philharmonia in the London premiere of his second Symphony.

Now in our 307th year, St John’s Smith Square continues to grow and thrive as a busy concert hall – a majestic building resounding to beautiful music in a serene city setting.

As Sir Hugh Casson has said of St John's "...just to come across it in that quiet square is an event. To enter it, to enjoy its spaces, to listen to fine music within its walls is an experience not to be matched in conventional concert halls and is a lasting tribute to the man who designed it."