The parish of St John Sepulchre lie in the extreme south of the mediaeval portion of the city of Norwich, not quite the southernmost but still forming a substantial part of the original city southern boundary with the wiser county. Much of the parish lies between the shallow fork formed by Ber Street with Queen's Road (nowadays part of the city's inner ring road). The parish stands on quite high ground for the city some 30 metres higher than the River Wensum and commands extensive views across that river's valley towards Thorpe St Andrew. The area was not one of the poorer within the city, of course it had its fair share of weavers & woolcombers but from the occupations listed it is clear that this was more an area for artisans, the carpenters, blacksmith, shoemaker & sundry other "makers" of the city. The area immediately outside the city walls, within Lakenham parish, was one of the fastest growing during the period of this transcript, as people migrated out of the cramped mediaeval centre into the suburbs of New Lakenham, whilst many city parishes saw a sharp fall in baptismal volumes St John stayed a popular church for such events. Once an area of tightly packed housing much of this was lost to 1960s redevelopment albeit there is still much housing amongst the businesses and offices that lie here now.

St John Sepulchre's church stands within the corner formed by the junction of Ber Street & Finkelgate. The church is a creation of the great church-building era of the Perpendicular and St John has the magnificent western tower, reaching 90 feet into the sky as testimony to that era's style. Documentary evidence, in the forms of bequests within wills, exists which date a new chancel to 1480 and for a new northern chapel to 1536, these dates for renewal indicate the church is probably at least 50 years older than the first of those two dates, early 15th century in origin. A significant restoration took place in 1866, as happened to many churches. Like so many of Norwich's mediaeval churches it was declared redundant for worship in 1984, it found a continued religious use for 25 years following that as it was adopted by an Orthodox group but from 2009 it lay idle. There is limited street parking in the area, but space can often be found. The church, curiously, sits diagonally across its churchyard with the eastern aspect flush against the boundary with Ber Street, a somewhat cluttered churchyard makes for a difficult piece to adequately capture.