St John on the Wall, Bristol

Cared for by The Churches Conservation Trust, St John on the Wall is a heritage attraction in the heart of medieval Bristol.

With new interactive displays and activities being launched in summer 2016, visitors will be able to discover medieval Bristol from the elegant upper church and the hidden crypt below.

Sitting over the old North gate into the city, it was built in the 14th-century as a place for travellers to offer prayers before a journey.

The building of St John’s coincided with a period of great prosperity for Bristol. Walter Frampton (died 1388), who was mayor of the city three times, founded the church, and his splendid monument stands in the chancel. His effigy lies on a tombchest decorated with heraldic shields, with a long-tailed dog at his feet.

Other monuments in the chancel, and in the early 14th-century vaulted crypt beneath, testify to the wealth and business activity of the city, in Medieval times and later. See, for example, the alabaster tomb in the crypt of a merchant and his wife, with their ten children represented in panels below.

The interior of the church is impressively tall and graceful, with fine fittings dating mostly from the 17th-century. On the north side of the church, built into the city wall is a fountain, a branch of a conduit installed to bring water to the Carmelite Friary 700 years ago. It is said that at election times in the past it was sometimes made to run with wine.

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