This is a modern building with a long history, stretching back to the middle of the 19th Century when it was formed as an offshoot of the St Nicholas Congregational Chapel in the town centre. The St Nicholas chapel, pictured on the left, is most famous today for its minister in the 1860s, William Tozer, who was one of the main protagonists in what became known as the Akenham Burial Case. The congregation opened a mission church on the corner of Cowper Street and Spring Road, in the California area of the town, so-named because the rapid expansion of Ipswich to the east coincided with the Californian gold rush. California Chapel went from strength to strength, eventually becoming established as a congregation in its own right. It was renamed St John's Congregational Chapel after the name of the local civil parish and council ward. In the 1970s, the community here joined the United Reformed Church, as most of the more liberal Congregational churches did at that time. The town centre chapel closed, and was demolished, in the 1980s.

At about the same time, something rather unusual happened to the former mission church of St John's URC. On the night of the 15th October 1987, an extraordinary weather system blew up from the English channel and across the south-eastern corner of England. It reached Suffolk at about 5am, and caused unprecedented structural damage to buildings. About half a dozen churches in the county were put to the sword by the winds, which reached well over a hundred miles an hour. St John's was one of them. The damage was so extensive that the only solution was demolition and rebuilding, which happened immediately afterwards.

The happy result is a fine multi-purpose building, perhaps without the character of its predecessor, but in busy use by both the congregation and local organisations.