St John the Evangelist's Church, Preston Village

St John the Evangelist's Church is an Anglican church in the Preston Village area of Brighton, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The Grade II listed building, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield, was started in 1901 but did not take its present form for another quarter of a century. In the meantime, the nearby parish church of Preston was severely damaged by fire, and the new church was granted the parish church status which it still retains.HistoryThe village of Preston was established on a downland site 1.5mi north-northwest of Brighton before the time of the Domesday Book. St Peter's Church was its original parish church. No trace remains of the building mentioned in the Domesday Book: it was rebuilt in about 1260 in flint with a chancel, nave and tower. The village, based around a crossroads and a manor house, Preston Manor, became part of the Borough of Brighton on 31 October 1873.The Stanford family, who owned most of the land in the area, sold it for residential development in the mid-1860s. Rapid growth ensued, and the old church became inadequate for the increasing population. In 1899, the new vicar proposed extending the church, but the church council and local people felt that altering the ancient building would be inappropriate. Instead, the decision was taken to build a new church on land occupied by the garden of the vicarage.