St John the Baptist Anglican Church is an active Anglican church located between Alt and Bland Streets, Ashfield, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1840, on land donated by Elizabeth Underwood, the church building is the oldest authenticated surviving building in Ashfield, having been built at the time when subdivision increased the population density sufficiently to turn Ashfield into a town. It was also the first church built along the Parramatta Road which linked the early colonial towns of Sydney and Parramatta. The earliest remaining parts of the building are one of the first Sydney designs by the colonial architect Edmund Blacket, who later became renowned for his ecclesiastical architecture.
The northern side of the church building. The central rendered section (nave) is the original church building. The sandstone section on the left (transept and chancel) was completed in 1875. The tower on the right was added in 1901.
Elizabeth Underwood
William Bland
The original church building, measuring 61 feet (19 m) by 31 feet (9.4 m).
Ashfield, New South Wales
Ashfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ashfield is about 8 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district.
Liverpool Road
NASA image of Sydney's CBD and inner west suburbs, with borders of Ashfield shown in orange
Choice Villa Sites, Ashfield, 1876, Watkin and Watkin, lithograph Gibbs Shallard and Co.
Peckham Estate, Ashfield, 1881, Watkin and Watkin