page_title: St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood / Music
caption_attribution_description: English: Organ of St John's church. A brief history of the church generally is given at 39262. A full history of the organ is at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/offroadrunner/the_organ.htm but briefly, it was one of the first electro-pneumatic organs ever built, by Lewis &amp; Co of Brixton, using batteries, although the technology was ahead of its time and not successful. Much added to and altered over the years, it was restored in 1999 back to nearer Lewis's original intentions.
context_page_description: The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Church of England church in Upper Norwood, a suburb of South London, in the United Kingdom. It is a Grade II* listed red brick Gothic Revival church which was built between 1878 and 1887 by the English architect John Loughborough Pearson. The church is dedicated to the Christian saint, John the Evangelist.
context_section_description: Since the incumbency of Thomas Helmore, the Church of St John the Evangelist has maintained a strong tradition of music in Christian worship. The organ was originally built by Thomas Christopher Lewis in 1882 during the construction of the church, when only the chancel had been completed. The instrument was of an unusual design; while the organ itself was situated in the north transept, the console was placed on the other side of the church in the south choir aisle. This led to technical problems and the organ underwent several rebuilds in 1912, 1947  (following wartime bomb damage) and most recently in a restoration project undertaken in 1997-98 by Harrison & Harrison.
  The church interior is noted for the quality of its acoustics and it is frequently used by classical music artists for CD recordings, including His Majesty's Sagbutts & Cornetts, Florilegium and I Fagiolini.
  Also the church was the location of two music videos of Libera.
caption: The 1882 Lewis Organ
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