(UNITING, FORMERLY METHODIST),CORNER OXLEY ROAD AND HEPBURN STREET, AUBURN A noble bell tower with no bell. This remarkable building might have been designed as a variation on Mark Twain’s description of Maryborough and its grandiose railway station – a “station with a town attached”. This is a tower with a church attached. No Methodist understatementContinue reading “AUBURN UNITING CHURCH”
Tag Archives: Brick churches
ALL SAINTS’, WEST FOOTSCRAY
(ANGLICAN)CORNER OF BALLARAT ROAD AND MAY STREET, WEST FOOTSCRAY A fine example of 1960s “contemporary”. This church, ultra-contemporary for its time, seems to have escaped the notice of heritage consultants and architectural historians. Possibly that is because of its locality, on the corner of one of the most dispiriting suburban roads in a shabby partContinue reading “ALL SAINTS’, WEST FOOTSCRAY”
ST AGNES’S, BLACK ROCK
(ANGLICAN)ARKARINGA CRESCENT, BLACK ROCK Rus in urbe beside the bay. St Agnes’s is a country church in a suburb. It was in the country, more or less, when it was built, and has kept that air, even to the extent of acquiring a thoroughly unsuitable flat-roofed extension at the front for before- and after-service get-togethers,Continue reading “ST AGNES’S, BLACK ROCK”
EAST IVANHOE UNITING CHURCH
CORNER LOWER HEIDELBERG ROAD AND KING STREET, EAST IVANHOE Valuable site: the East Ivanhoe Uniting church and its land were sold for more than $11 million. Here’s an illustration of how quickly churchgoing has declined in well-to-do suburbs where not long ago churches were at the centre of local life. The East Ivanhoe Uniting churchContinue reading “EAST IVANHOE UNITING CHURCH”
ST PATRICK’S, ROKEWOOD
(ROMAN CATHOLIC)COLAC-BALLARAT ROAD, ROKEWOOD One more disposal in what looks like a clearance sale. The Roman Catholic authorities in Ballarat are at it again, selling off a perfectly good solid church building which will now be mutilated architecturally by being put to some secular use, probably as someone’s house. They’d hardly got the very handsomeContinue reading “ST PATRICK’S, ROKEWOOD”
ST PHILIP THE EVANGELIST, RUPANYUP
(ANGLICAN) CROMIE STREET, RUPANYUP Architect Louis Williams at his best. The last ten years or so have been bad enough for churches in urban Victoria, with closures planned or effected, but in the country they have been disastrous. Scores of churches have shut down, as rural populations decline and townships are turned into ghosts ofContinue reading “ST PHILIP THE EVANGELIST, RUPANYUP”
ALBERT PARK METHODIST CHURCH, ALBERT PARK
(FORMERLY METHODIST)CARDIGAN PLACE, ALBERT PARK The post-Christian era in plain view. If you want to see what the post-Christian era looks like, Bridport Street in Melbourne’s rich respectable seaside suburb of Albert Park is a one-stop exhibition. At each end of this thronged street stands a large and imposing brick church. At the eastern endContinue reading “ALBERT PARK METHODIST CHURCH, ALBERT PARK”
ST AGNES’S, GLEN HUNTLY
(ANGLICAN)BOORAN ROAD, GLEN HUNTLY An echo of Ravenna in a 1920s suburb. It never augurs well for a church’s future when it loses its parochial autonomy. St Agnes’s, Glen Huntly, is now administered from St John’s, East Malvern, a parish which is returning to its nineteenth-century extensiveness, having several years ago had part of theContinue reading “ST AGNES’S, GLEN HUNTLY”
DROMANA UNITING CHURCH
(FORMERLY METHODIST)NEPEAN HIGHWAY, DROMANA Welcome, but not to church. When a church ceases to be used for the primary purpose for which it was built you start to wonder how long it will continue to exist as a building. I don’t mean that it will be instantly torn down, or sold on the sly (toContinue reading “DROMANA UNITING CHURCH”
ST FRANCIS XAVIER’S, PRAHRAN
(ROMAN CATHOLIC)HIGH STREET, PRAHRAN Melbourne’s first “Vatican II” church, now much altered. Here we have a classic illustration of the principle that drives the wheel of fashion, at least in the realm of architecture. Forty or so years after its zenith of popularity, a building that was admired and lauded by all is dismissed andContinue reading “ST FRANCIS XAVIER’S, PRAHRAN”
HERE TODAY... 