St John's is located on the hillside above the centre of the suburb of Maindee, the west front facing Kensington Place, within a walled, grassed enclosure, its main entrances with gatepiers at west and south-west.
The church was built in Geometrical Gothic Revival style in 1859-60 to designs of Prichard and Seddon, with a later steeple (of 1911, now gone) by J.Coates Carter, to serve the developing area of Maindee. It suffered some bomb damage during the Second World War and, more seriously, in an arson attack in 1949 before being restored.
The plan consists of a four-bay nave with aisles (north aisle added in 1911) extended as chapels, the chancel projecting to the east by one bay, a west porch, and south-west porch steeple. It is built of coursed Old Red sandstone rubble with Bath-stone dressings creating a decorative polychrome effect, particularly on window surrounds, voussoirs, quoins and with plentiful banding especially on the three-storey tower. The Welsh slate roof is steeply pitched with stone corbels and apex crosses.
Interior has boarded roof with scissor trusses, painted side panels and grid ventilators. The arcades and chancel arch were re-instated to the original design after the fire. Important original stained glass in two of the enormous windows survives because they were being restored at the time of the 1949 fire. The Geometrical-style font, designed by Seddon, suffered only slight fire damage. Most of the chancel and sanctuary furnishings are in light wood and date from the 1950s restoration.
Sources: extracts from Cadw Listing database; J.Newman, Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire (2000), p.429-30.

RCAHMW, 5 December 2014