[Ms. Edwards carried out all the research in London and provided the census information. — George P. Landow]
1843 Born in Hoxton Hackney. Son of Joseph & Mary. Father from Birmingham.
1851 Living at 10 Clift Street (aged 7)
1863 Elected a member of the Architectural Association
1864 Married to Fanny Elizabeth Webb on 20th September 1864.
1868 House in Sevenoaks, Kent (mentions address as Moorgate, London) (house later called St Augustines Home for boys) It was demolished in the 1980’s. Anstice Working Men’s club, Madeley (mentions address as 35 Moorgate).
1871 Living at 6 Enfield Road North, Hackney (aged 27)
1874 Rebuild of Anstice after Fire
1876 Moved to 9 Queen Victoria street, Mansion House, London
1879 Ipswich post office, Cornhill (Opened on 27th July 1881 now used as a bank). Built on the footprint of the demolished 1850 Corn Exchange. Design published in The Building News, dated 12 September 1897. The plan drawings indicate a tapering of the side walls from rear to front, suggesting that the footprint of our Post Office is an isosceles trapezium. This was presumably done to fit the building into an existing street pattern. The sculptures are by William Frederick Woodington RA (1806-1893). References Builder 1 (1880): 735 (illustrations); 2 (1881): 169' Illustrated London News (30 Jul 1881): 104 (illustration); Ipswich Journal (19 Mar 1881): 7.
1880 St Matthews church, Bayswater Grade II*. (financed by John Derby Allcroft, Stokeshay Court). Architect's plan of the church, signed in the lower right-hand corner, “John Johnson, ARIBA. 9 Queen Victoria St, Mansion House, London E.C.”
1881 Living at 10 Enfield Road North, Hackney (aged 37).
Work Address listed as 9 Queen Victoria Street, Mansion House, London
ARIBA 23rd May 1881 proposed by HR Newton, T Roger Smith F Chambers (RIBA nomination papers A v7 p. 93. Fiche ref 28/E3)
Staines Town Hall erected by public subscription. Grade II.
1882 Bootle Town Hall, Oriel Road. Grade II. Johnson worked from 9 Queen Victoria street, London.
1883 Madeira Road Improvements, Brighton. Originally laid out in 1872.
1884 St Bartholomew, Dalston Lane, Hackney.
The church originated in an iron church and from 1882 was a chapel of ease for Saint Mark's, Shoreditch. The congregation paid for a permanent building by John Johnson. Built by Dove’s of Islington.
Also built a vicarage with the church (Grade II). Church demolished in 1950s for road scheme that was never completed. In ruins for many years. Converted to housing in 1995.
1887 Bootle Library & Museum. Extension onto Town Hall. Johnson worked from 9 Queen Victoria Street.
Gravesend clock tower, Harmer Street, Kent.
Reference (Pevsner p.292) (to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 1887 Golden Jubilee)
Competition where architects were invited to submit designs under pseudonyms so that there could be no bias in the judging. The winning architect used the name 'Experience' and was Mr John Johnson. The building of the tower was put out to tender and Mr W H Archer's costing of £675 to build a Portland Stone tower was accepted.
1888 Brighton Clock Tower, North Street Won competition for design of Brighton clock tower (to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 1887 Golden Jubilee) Restored in 2001. References: A letter on file at RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architects) explains that the extent of this John Johnson's practice, and "the fact that he had previously worked in Brighton on a public project" (the Madeira Road improvements there, 1883), "make the attribution very probable" (Biographical File no. 30)."
1889 Almshouses, Dartford, Kent. Reference: (Pevsner p 249) Built by John Johnson in Queen Anne Dutch style on the site of 4 earlier almshouses built by John Byer in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. John Johnson working from 9 Queen Victoria Street. Woolwich Arsenal and Town Working Men's Social Club, Mount Pleasant, Shoreditch.
1890 Memorial stone laid for Bermondsey Library on 29th November. Entry submitted under the name of “light” by John Johnson F.R.I.B.A. of 9 Queen Victoria Street.
1891 Hertford post Office, 84-86 Fore Street (not listed). Competition winning design for the front elevation of a proposed new post-office
Reference: Builder (12 Oct 1899): 259;
Hertfordshire Mercury (24 Aug 1889): 5; (5 Oct 1889): 5
Won competition for design of Shrewsbury public baths.
1892 Bermondsey old Library (not listed). F and H Higgs, builders. Brick in Flemish bond with terracotta and stone trim. Officially opened to public on 18th January by Sir John Lubbock. Closed as a library in 1989 now used by Kagyu Samye Dzong, the Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Centre for World Peace and Health (Southwark Annual 1895).
Contract for Shrewsbury baths terminated due to disagreement over tenders.
1893 St Saviour’s public library in Southwark by John Johnson, 9 Queen Victoria Street, A.R.I.B.A. won through design competition). The style is English Renaissance, in white Suffolk bricks with beer stone dressings. The builder was Mr. H. L. Holloway, of Deptford. The carving, designed by the architect, was exceedingly well executed by Mr. Baird, of 8, Heron Road, Herrie Hill. The keystone to the principal entrance in Southwark Bridge Road is enriched by the head of Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom. (see Southwark Annual for 1895).
1894 Official opening of St Saviour’s public library by Mr R Causton MP on 3rd November. Cost of building £5,042). Ceased use as a library in 1977 now 56 Southwark Bridge Road used as offices by media training centre.
Leyton Town Hall & Technical Institute. Built of red-brick and Portland stone. Design competition which attracted more than 30 entries from architects. The brief finally went to John Johnson whose design was put into bricks and mortar from 1894, at a cost of £17,286.
1896 Leyton Town Hall & Technical Institute officially opened in March 1896 by Duke of York. John Johnson was presented to the Duke – illustration in Punch magazine. The Great Hall fell into disuse in the 1980s and was used as a storeroom for unwanted equipment. Other offices in the building were used as Leyton Municipal Offices until the building was sold by the council to Lee Valley Estates in 2006. Now being converted to a Business Centre.
1901 Living at 10 Ardleigh Road, Hackney with wife (no children). Aged 58.
1904 Work started on Surbiton clock tower
1908 Surbiton clock tower, Claremont Road (to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII in 1902) Grade II. Restored in 2007.
1917 Wife Fanny Webb died
1919 John Johnson died in April aged 76.
1920 Obituaries in:
RIBA journal 27 (1919/1920): 459. Described as "a rapid sketcher and excellent draughtsman"
RIBA journal 28 (4 Dec 1920): 78.
Builder 119 (3rd Sept 1920): 248
Last modified 13 September 2017