It is a Grade II* listed building and the sanctuary inside the church was designed by Joseph John Scoles.

Fr Charles Brockholes SJ was the person first connected to the mission of St. John's.

When he arrived in Standishgate, where he paid for the building of a house that had a chapel upstairs.

[3] In 1817, the increasing Catholic population of the town meant that there were calls from the congregation for a larger place of worship to be built.

A plot of land behind the chapel was used for construction and the foundation stone was laid on 27 January 1818.