St John's Church on St John Street is the oldest church in Launceston, with construction beginning in 1824 just nineteen years after the town was founded. The building has gone through several phases — the original Georgian structure was extended and partly rebuilt in the 1860s — but retains a sense of colonial-era solidity unusual in a young city. The churchyard contains some of the earliest European gravestones in northern Tasmania.
The interior has good Victorian stained glass added in the later periods of the building's life, and the overall effect is of a modest English country church transplanted imperfectly to a completely different landscape. Services still run on Sundays. Outside service times, the church is often unlocked for visitors.