Welcome to St John's
St John's Hospital is a registered charity providing Almshouse accommodation, community grants and individual financial support to deprived people in Bath.
The historic charitable trust is as old as Bath itself. Founded in 1174, it has served the community for over 800 years. Today, its vision is to provide an improved quality of life, through housing and support for older people, and through grant making, for others who are disadvantaged in some way.
The full name of the charity is The Hospital of St John the Baptist with the Chapel of St. Michael, annexed with St Catherine's Hospital. It also encompasses Bath Municipal Charities and a group of other local charities. For convenience and everyday use, it is affectionately known simply as St John's.
The Bishop of Taunton has rededicated St John’s Hospital Chapel of St Michael’s Within, in a special service in Bath city centre. It is almost 132 years ago since the last rededication service at the beautiful little church, in Chapel Court, which dates back as a place of worship to the 700s AD.
Over the centuries the Chapel has been at the heart of the almshouses charity and undergone major renovations, particularly in the 1700s when the architect William Killigrew remodelled it completely. It is now the only remaining Georgian chapel in Bath; features of interest included round-headed windows and Venetian tracery.