Bath, Art and Architecture: John Johnson, Coade and Shire Hall, Chelmsford, Essex, the Crown Court at Lewes, East Sussex and further Coade related works.

Saturday, 3 October 2026

John Johnson, Coade and Shire Hall, Chelmsford, Essex, the Crown Court at Lewes, East Sussex and further Coade related works.

John Johnson, Coade and Shire Hall, Chelmsford, Essex.

John Johnson (22 April 1732 – 17 August 1814) was an English architect and surveyor to the county of Essex. He is probably best known for designing the Shire Hall, Chelmsford which opened in 1791 (see below).

Johnson was born in Leicester. He moved to London before his thirtieth birthday and in the late 1760s was engaged by William Berners in speculative building of Berners' estate in Marylebone.

He designed the Shire Hall at Chelmsford in Essex in 1788 which has three Coade stone reliefs on the front he was also responsible for design and use the three reliefs on the Crown Court at Lewes. the City Rooms at Leicester has two Coade Artificial Stone Statues by Rossi.

Woolverston Hall, Suffolk of 1776 for the Berners Family also by Johnson has much coade embelishment -

https://woolverstone.org/heritage-trail/woolverstone-hall/

For most of the rest of his life he lived in one of the houses that he had built in Berners Street. In 1782 he succeeded William Hillyer as Surveyor to the County of Essex, a position that he held for thirty years, retiring at the age of 80.

In 1785 he became a partner with Sir Herbert Mackworth and others in Dorsett and Co, a bank in Bond Street, but Mackworth left before 1792, the bank failed in 1797 and was wound up in 1803. After this, Johnson moved from Berners Street to Camden Town, and on his retirement in 1812 returned to Leicester, where he died.

He was buried in St Martin's Church (now Leicester Cathedral) where he is commemorated on the base of a monument by John Bacon, originally erected in 1786 as a memorial to his parents (poor quality image below).

The Chelmsford Coade Naiad.

The Chelmsford Naiad, or water nymph, is manufacture from Coade Stone. The Naiad fountain was designed by John Johnson as a fountain head to stand outside the Shire Hall, over the town's water source. She was unveiled in 1791, and stood six feet tall, leaning on a pillar, on a pedestal decorated with four dolphins. The pillar on which she stood was five-foot high.

In 1814 the Naiad was replaced by the dome shaped conduit which now stands in Tower Gardens. The statue of Judge Tindal now stands on the spot outside the Shire Hall.

The Naiad was 'lost' for many years. Reputed to hve been sold at auction for £2. In 1963, she was found at Springfield Villa where she was being used a garden ornament.

The mutilated statue was given to the Chelmsford Society with a chipped nose, and her right arm, left hand and her shield missing.

The Chelmsford Society gave her to the Chelmsford Borough Council who placed her on display in the Chelmsford and Essex Museum in Oaklands Park. In 1980, she was returned to the Shire Hall where she stood in the foyer.

The figures of Mercy, Wisdom and Justice on the facade of the Shire Hall, and the Stone Bridge over the River Can are also constructed from Coade Stone. These are reputed to have been by John Bacon but it is worth speculating whether the three reliefs and the Naiad came from a design by Johnson.

The Chelmsford Coade Naiad.

Height 183 cms.

One should be thankful for small mercies - a truly awful image of the Naiad from the Artuk webite.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/naiad-250941

This appears to be a special order and is not related to other female statues in the 1784 Catalogue.

The pose is similar to No 34 in the Coade Catalogue (image below)