Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

St John's Church, Reading, viewed from the south west. Photo taken November 2022. The church is now the Polish Catholic Sacred Heart Church.

St John's Church, Reading. West Face. Photo taken November 2022.

St John's Church, Reading. Now the Polish Sacred Heart Church. View from the south west.

Posted 10 August 2025.

St John's on Watlington Street was built in 1872 to designs by William Allen Dixon. It became disused in the early 1970s. As early as 1973 the diocese had ordered its demolition, and the building of a new "multi-purpose, modern centre" to serve the Newtown area.¹ In 1978 the Church Commissioners and St John's Parochial Church Council again approved the demolition of the church.² A great controversy arose in the town and a "Save St John's" campaign was mounted.³ A major row erupted with the Reading Civic Society accusing the church authorities in a letter to the Oxford Diocese as behaving "irresponsibly".⁴

However, the grand edifice was saved from that fate when in 1980, the local Polish church (which had long expressed an interest in acquiring the building) bought it and brought it back into use.⁵ It is now known as the Sacred Heart Church, part of the Polish Catholic Mission in England and Wales.

Externally the church is a curious mix of exuberant Gothic Revival Early English, and Italianate styles. The square south west tower is distinctly Italianate, the lower stage surmounted by an imposing cornice, but then it is surmounted with a broach spire more in keeping with those found in 15th century churches in Rutland and east Northamptonshire. All the windows' pedimented voussoirs are alternate polychrome stone blocks of red and cream sandstone, springing off circular columns with ionic capitals, including a considerable number on the faces of the tower. Door voussoirs are similarly pedimented. The large clerestoried nave is flanked at its western corners by unusual polygonal turrets varying in height.

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West window. Archangels Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael.
Image Awaited: Click here. St John's, Reading. West Window. Centre lights by Percy Bacon Limited. Outer lights by another firm.to view the window on the Church's website.

St John's Church, Reading. West window. Centre lights by Percy Bacon Limited.

Alterations to the church were proposed by the Parochial Council in early 1930. These included some minor alterations to the layout of the pews and pulpit, provision of a chancel carpet, the creation of a chapel in the south transept, and renovation of the clergy vestry.⁶ At the same time, Percy Bacon was given an order to put in the centre lights of the west window. These two lights now have representations of St Gabriel and St Michael. Unlike earlier work by the studio, there are no backgrounds, and the figures standing on plinths seem to float in a sea of plain diamond leaded glass. Whether this was intentional (perhaps to reduce cost), or there has been some drastic alterations over the years is moot. In the beautiful septfoil rose above the lights is a representation of the Agnes Dei, surrounding which in seven matching truncated trefoil openings are filled with putti.

This is a late piece of work by the Bacon Studio. Few new windows were executed by the firm after 1930. The outer lights containing representations of Uriel & Raphael were not inserted until 1933, and, although the figurative work in the outer lights is certainly faithful to the Bacon style, it is by no means certain that the Bacon Studio executed the work, as the proposal to complete the window was not made until 6th January of that year, the same month that Percy Bacon Limited went into liquidation.⁷ It is possible that another firm was engaged, and they tried to match the style of the centre lights to create harmony, though Robert Eberhard attributes all four lights to Percy Bacon citing faculty papers.⁸ The article in the Reading Standard of 6th January 1933 reported that a member of the congregation had offered to defray the cost of "completing the west window of St John's", and that the work was to be put in hand immediately.

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1. Editorial: Reading Evening Post - Tuesday 30 May 1978, p6.
2. Reading Evening Post - Friday 02 June 1978, p12. This uncredited opinion piece mentioned that the Polish community had already expressed an interest in acquiring the building, and that many parishioners had disagreed with the decision to demolish it.
3. Reading Evening Post - Monday 28 May 1979, p8. Letter from K Chandy of the "Save St John's" campaign. Judging by other letters from residents in the postbag of the Reading Eveing Post, the decision to demolish was highly controversial.
4. Reading Evening Post - Tuesday 30 May 1978, p3.
5. Sacred Heart Church, Reading website.
6. Report in Reading Standard - Saturday 04 January 1930, p16.
7. Reading Standard 6th January 1933, p9.
8. Church Stained Glass Records recorded by Robert Eberhard.