The parish of St John King's Lynn, also known as South Lynn, was created in the 1840s to serve the expanding population of that port. King's Lynn had been growing in population steadily and expanding southwards from its original centre in the vicinity of St Margaret's church. In addition there was a grant available from parliament to build churches for deserving poorer areas and South Lynn was such an area, indeed at the opening consecration the church was pointedly described as "a poor man's church" with no paid seating permitted within. St John sits on a sharp corner of Blackfriars Road close to King's Lynn's railway station with the road forming part of the town's fast inner ring road with very heavy traffic passing the door. St John sits, however, in a parkland setting behind sturdy railings with pleasant walkways around it. Built between 1844 & 1846 in an Early English Gothic style the building was subject to some change in the late 1880s when the buttresses at the western end were added for stability. Modern work in the 1980s saw the western 2 bays converted to a meeting room and kitchen.