St Mary's Anglican Church, North Melbourne
The present structure is one of North Melbourne s oldest buildings and Melbourne architect Lloyd Taylor s earliest work. The Church is surrounded by attractive gardens and presents a notable composition of bluestone gables. The austere and expansive interior is well planned and culminates in a distinctive vaulted crossing. The timber ceilings in the nave, trancepts and chancel are also notable.The uncarved label blocks are an interesting external feature. Only the base of the proposed tower and spire was executed.
The story of St Mary s began in 1853. This was just 18 years on from the arrival of the first white settlers who came over from Tasmania and founded Melbourne in 1835. The discovery of gold in 1852 turned Melbourne overnight from a quiet rural depot into a bustling boom town bursting at its seams with adventurers who arrived from everywhere in their tens of thousands. The land to the north of the town was quickly criss-crossed by roads leading to the goldfields and settled by those who sought to make money from the diggers rather than the diggings blacksmiths, wheelwrights, provisioners, hardware merchants and hoteliers.
Building of this stone church commenced in October 1858 and the building, partially completed, was opened for worship on March 11th 1860. Completion of the building took another five years. The church was one of the first in this part of the world to be built in the Gothic revival style. It is cruciform in ground plan with large transepts. It was the first church in the Colony to have clerestory windows and its east window at the time of its construction was the largest in the Colony. The spacious interior, wide aisles separated from the nave by rows of arches, and the vaulted crossing all reflect the confidence and optimism of the period.
The vision of the original builders proved too much of a challenge, however, for those who followed. Although very heavily populated, during the rest of the nineteenth century North Melbourne became increasingly industrial and its working class population lacked the resources to fill in the Gothic shell left to them by their forebears. Writers of the period refer to the canvernous interior of St Mary s and to the congregation as foot soldiers in the battle of life.
Location; St Mary s Anglican Cathedral, 163 Howard Street, cnr Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, Vic
