diff --git a/changelog.d/8845.misc b/changelog.d/8845.misc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7db1c31520
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/8845.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Drop redundant database index on `event_json`.
diff --git a/synapse/storage/databases/main/purge_events.py b/synapse/storage/databases/main/purge_events.py
index ecfc6717b3..5d668aadb2 100644
--- a/synapse/storage/databases/main/purge_events.py
+++ b/synapse/storage/databases/main/purge_events.py
@@ -314,6 +314,7 @@ class PurgeEventsStore(StateGroupWorkerStore, SQLBaseStore):
         for table in (
             "event_auth",
             "event_edges",
+            "event_json",
             "event_push_actions_staging",
             "event_reference_hashes",
             "event_relations",
@@ -340,7 +341,6 @@ class PurgeEventsStore(StateGroupWorkerStore, SQLBaseStore):
             "destination_rooms",
             "event_backward_extremities",
             "event_forward_extremities",
-            "event_json",
             "event_push_actions",
             "event_search",
             "events",
diff --git a/synapse/storage/databases/main/schema/delta/58/24drop_event_json_index.sql b/synapse/storage/databases/main/schema/delta/58/24drop_event_json_index.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8a39d54aed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/synapse/storage/databases/main/schema/delta/58/24drop_event_json_index.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+/* Copyright 2020 The Matrix.org Foundation C.I.C
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+-- this index is essentially redundant. The only time it was ever used was when purging
+-- rooms - and Synapse 1.24 will change that.
+
+DROP INDEX IF EXISTS event_json_room_id;