The design of the building is a development and an imaginative leap forwards
from some of Scorer’s earlier designs. In 1956, he completed a project at a water tower in Ilkeston,
Derbyshire. This project included the first of Scorer’s ‘hyperbolic paraboloid’ roof designs. Hyperbolic paraboloid essentially means doubly curved, so that
from one direction, the roof curves downwards to the ground at opposite points,
and from the other direction it curves upwards to the sky at either end.
Scorer had designed an earlier church at Welwyn Garden City. This was never
completed, but two more hyperbolic paraboloid roofs were. Both the Brayford
Garage in Lincoln of 1958-1959 (now a branch of the Central Library) and the
1960 garage at Markham Moor roundabout on the Al near Retford were precursors
to the roof of St John’s.
