The church was built as an Anglican church in 1834 and changed to Catholic use in 1851. The church's website has an extensive history of Catholics in Gravesend abd the church of which, the following, is an extract:
"1851, the year after the restoration of the Hierarchy, saw the congregation in Gravesend move from the little chapel of St. Gregory to the present St John's. The early history of the Church is interesting.
In the 1830s, when the population of Gravesend was about 10,000 - less than a fifth of today's size - there was found to be a serious lack of seating accommodation in the Established churches. So, at a meeting chaired by the Mayor at the Town Hall in 1833 it was decided to build another church which would seat 1,500 worshippers. This church - St. John's - would of course be used for Church of England Worship. But, being put up by private enterprise, as a "proprietary chapel", it would belong not to the Anglican Diocese (Rochester), but to its 100 shareholders who had each subscribed £50.
Serving, then, as a "chapel of ease" to the main parish church (Milton), and dedicated actually to St. John the Baptist, St. John's Chapel was opened for Church of England worship on 16th November 1834 at a cost of £7,200 as against an original estimate of £3,950.
From the time of its opening for Church of England worship St. John's was beset by financial difficulties. The public company in ownership of the building already had a debt of well over £2,000, and its only income - from pew rents, since apparaently there were no free seats! - was quite insufficient to meet running costs. By 1838 the Company had no money to pay the minister his £200 yearly salary, and so it was resolved to sell off St. John's and liquidate the Company. Various offers of purchase were made, including one by the Archdeacon of Rochester for £3,500, which was for some reason turned down.
At length, in August 1842 it was decided to sell St. John's for £4,000 to the Reverend William John Blew MA, then curate of St. Anne's, Westminster, the money being provided by his father. Mr. Blew was in sympathy with the Oxford Movement - that pro-Catholic movement within the Church of England, which was to yeild to the Catholic Church such converts as Cardinal Newman and Cardinal Manning - and the worship and doctrine for which Mr. Blew was responsible at St. John's would today be called in Anglican circles "high Church."
Mr. Blew continued his ministry at St. John's for 9 years, until 1851, when on 9th April The Times reported the "strong sensation excited in the town of Gravesend in consequence of the suspension for 6 months of Revd Mr. Blew by the Bishop of Rochester."
Revd Blew had been among several Anglican clergymen who had written to Cardinal wiseman, lamenting the unfriendly and hostile manner in which the Cardinal had been received in England. "The clamour of the many" they said was not to be regarded as "the unequivocal voice of religion and of the Church of England." The Illustrated London News of 12th April 1851 reported that a Mr. Durval, one of the wardens of Holy Trinity Church, had complained to the Bishop about Revd Blew's pro-Roman stand. Holy Trinity Church, now demolished, had been built in 1844 after the refusal of the then proprietors of St. John's to sell to a representative of the Diocese of Rochester.
The strained relationship between Holy Trinity and the Anglican St. John's was in evidence before the former was even built; its first list of subscribers had complained against St. John's that "it provides accommodation for those who can afford to pay for their seats... yet this is of little advantage to the poor and adds nothing necessarily to...the pastoral care of the parish." If those things changed in the Revd Blew's time (1842-51), there was now something of a rivalry as between an anti-Roman "low" church and a more Roman- like "high" church.
The Revd Blew must have been disillusioned and very hurt at his suspension by the Bishop of Rochester, the effect of which was to close for 6 months in favour of Holy Trinity the church his family had paid for, and to disperse his congregation. His response was to discontinue his ministry, permanently; to move out of Gravesend; and to sell St John's to Cardinal Wiseman for the sum of £4,000. Half of this purchase sum was put up by Mr Lewis aaphael of Parrock Manor who had attempted to buy St. John's for use as a Catholic church as early as 1838. The St. John's of 1851 had a small bell-turret, but as yet no tower. The priest serving in Gravesend in that year was Fr. John Wenham.
On 30th October 1851, nearly 17 years after its original opening, St. John's was solemnly dedicated and opened for Catholic worship by Bishop Grant of Southwark. The Change of dedication, from St. John the Baptist to St. John the Evangelist, is puzzling. It may possibly be explained as emphasizing that in Catholic eyes 1851 was the beginning of this church's life, and by no means the mere continuation of the Anglican cultus; and perhaps the title "St. John's" was too firmly established among locals to attempt to have it effectively altered.
In the inaugural ceremony Cardinal Wiseman preached the sermon and spoke kindly of the Revd Blew who was present in the congregation, but never actually became a Catholic.
During the period following the Restoration of the Hierarchy things could be quite difficult for the Catholic Community. The very act of restoration had been dubbed by many "the papal aggression," and an incident recorded of the first week's history of the now-Catholic St. John's illustrates the general situation.
On Guy Fawkes Night in that year of 1851 the celebration of Benediction in the Church had to be discontinued owing to the bombardment of the building with fireworks, rockets and stones. By the end of it, every pane of glass in the Parrock Street windows was broken, and representation about the incident was made to the Home Office. Clearly local anti-Catholic feeling could run very high, fuelled by resentment about the way in which a local Anglican church had come into Catholic hands. And this sad situation continued for some time. It is recounted in the published History of St. John's Seminary, Wonersh, that "at Gravesend Fr. Butt had had hard times and short commons.....He had to spend most of his income in keeping the glass in the church windows, which were constantly stoned by the inhabitants, and he depended largely for his sustenance upon hampers of food sent by his parents.""
The church's website lists the times of services as follows:
"SATURDAY
6.00 pm (First Mass of Sunday)
SUNDAY
8.30 am
9.30 am (Denton)
10.30 am
6.00 pm
MONDAY
9.15 am
TUESDAY
9.15 am
WEDNESDAY
12.00 noon
Adoration from 9.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m.
THURSDAY
9.15 pm (school)
FRIDAY
9.15 am
SATURDAY
10.00 am
Adoration after 10 am Mass to 12.30 p.m. Reconciliation Confessions) from 11.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.
6.00 pm (First Mass of Sunday)
Confessions from 11.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. every Saturday & on request."
The church is Grade II listed with the entry at the English Heritage website telling us:
"Built as an Anglican church in 1834 and changed to Catholic use in 1851. Built of stock brick with stone dressings. Canted apse. Nave and aisles. Buttresses. Tall stock brick tower with saddleback roof added in 1872-3 by Goldie and Child. Statue of the Virgin Mary in niche. 6 bay nave with double lancets having quatrefoil motif. Slender cast iron columns to interior."