Corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets, Melbourne, showing St. Paul’s Cathedral. Victoria, Australia 1912
By Remembering the Past Australia / March 21, 2022 / Uncategorized / 0 Comments
Place:
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Date:
1912
Historical Information:
This image is part of the Colonial Office photographic collection held at The National Archives UK.
St Paul’s Cathedral stands at the very heart of the City of Melbourne. In style, it echoes the grand Cathedrals of Europe. Designed by distinguished English revival architect William Butterfield, the Cathedral is built in the neo-Gothic transitional style, partly Early English and partly Decorated. Many consider St Paul’s to be Butterfield’s final masterpiece.
St Paul’s Cathedral has been an integral part of Christian Melbourne since the city’s foundation: it stands on the site where the first public Christian services in Melbourne were led by Dr Alexander Thomson in 1836. From 1836 to 1848 the site on which the Cathedral stands served as a corn market for the growing city. In 1848, it was granted to the Anglican Church to build the bluestone St Paul’s Parish Church. Consecrated in 1852, St Paul’s Church was used until 1885 when it was demolished to make way for the liturgical West-end of the present Cathedral.
The Cathedral’s foundation stone was laid in 1880, and work continued for eleven years, leading to the consecration of St Paul’s Cathedral on 22 January 1891. The construction of the three spires did not begin until 1926, to a revised design of John Barr of Sydney rather than the original design of an octagonal central tower and gable west end towers of Butterfield. The central spire is the second-highest in the Anglican Communion, after Salisbury Cathedral. [St Paul’s Cathedral]
Description:
Showing the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Original photo published 1912.
From the collection of:
