St Paul's Cathedral

About

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. It is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne, who is also the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Victoria. The cathedral was designed by the English Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield and completed in 1891, except for the spires which were built to a different design from 1926 to 1932. It is one of Melbourne's major architectural landmarks.

St Paul's Cathedral is in a prominent location at the centre of Melbourne, on the eastern corner of Swanston and Flinders streets. It is situated diagonally opposite Flinders Street station, which was the hub of 19th-century Melbourne and remains an important transport centre. It is the largest Anglican Church in Australia.

Immediately to the south of the cathedral, across Flinders Street, is the new public heart of Melbourne, Federation Square. Continuing south down Swanston Street is Princes Bridge, which crosses the Yarra River, leading to St Kilda Road. Thus the cathedral has a dominating position from the southern approaches to the city.

The location for the cathedral marks the place of the first Christian service held in Melbourne in 1835. Previous buildings on this site include a corn market and St Paul 's Parish Church.

St Paul's Cathedral is built on the site where the first public Christian service in Melbourne was conducted in 1835. The block was then a government reserve far from the centre of town to the west, and used as a corn market. By 1848 the site was then adjacent to the first Princes Bridge across the Yarra River, and the prominent site was granted to the Anglican Church. The bluestone Church of St Paul the Apostle was consecrated in 1852.

Colonial artist Samuel Thomas Gill sketched St Paul's Church in 1854. A lithographic print titled 'St. Paul's Church Melbourne 1854' is part of his Sketches in Victoria album and was digitised by the National Library of Australia in 2021.

Nearly 30 years later with the huge growth of the city and Swanston Street becoming a major thoroughfare, the diocese decided to build a grand cathedral on the site to supersede the 1839 St James Old Cathedral located in the western end of the CBD. The English architect William Butterfield, known for his distinctive interpretation of the Gothic Revival, was commissioned to design the new cathedral. To fit the block, the cathedral is orientated in line with the central city grid, on the north–south axis, rather than facing east, the traditional direction. The foundation stone was laid in 1880 by the Governor of Victoria, John, Earl of Hopetoun ( later Marquess of Linlithgow), in the presence of the Rt Revd Charles Perry, Bishop of Melbourne. On 22 January 1891 the cathedral (without the spires) was consecrated by the Rt Revd Field Flowers Goe, Bishop of Melbourne.

The building work was marked by disputes between Butterfield and the church authorities in Melbourne, leading to Butterfield's resignation in 1884. The job was then awarded to a local architect, Joseph Reed, who completed the building generally faithfully to Butterfield's design and who also designed the attached chapter house in matching style in 1889.

The pipe organ was commissioned from the English builder T. C. Lewis, one of the most prominent organ builders of the 19th century.

Lithographic print of the first St Paul's Church Melbourne 1854 by S. T. Gill

1862 lithograph of Melbourne from Princes Bridge, showing the first St Paul's Church

William Butterfield's original design for St Paul's Cathedral

For nearly 40 years, without the spires, the cathedral presented as a rather solid, horizontal mass, but was nevertheless the subject of postcards and photographs. In the early 1920s, having determined not to complete Butterfield's design, it was decided to hold a competition for the design of new spires. The winner, announced in Feb 1925, was John Barr, of Sydney, with a traditional Gothic Revival style, and the central spire much taller than the original design. Construction started in July 1926, using a stone from the Sydney area that was different to the original Barabool stone. The central tower was named the Moorhouse Spire, and reached its full height of 312 ft (95m) in 1932, and on 30 April 1933 a service of thanksgiving was held for its completion. The tower of St Paul's became the tallest structure in central Melbourne and dominated the city's skyline when viewed from the south.

While the towers were underway, additions were made to the Chapter House, enlarging the two storey section facing Flinders Street by one bay and one floor, in exactly matching stonework. The architects were Gawler & Drummond, and the works were done in 1926.

The 1960s saw extensive work completed to the exterior of the cathedral and in 1989 the organ was restored with the help of a major National Trust appeal. Further major restoration works were completed in 2009 with significant repairs to the spires, the installation of a coloured glass lantern in the Moorhouse Tower and coloured glass doors and a glass walled airlock at the Great West door.

The growth of multi-storey buildings in central Melbourne during the later 20th century robbed St Paul's of its claims to height, but with the retail heart height limit of 40m, it has retained its dominance of the immediate area. For about 30 years it was however somewhat dominated by the 16-storey Gas & Fuel buildings built along Flinders Street to the east in 1967, but demolished in 1997 to make way for Federation Square.

By the 1990s the constant traffic vibration in central Melbourne led to concerns about the structural soundness of the cathedral, particularly its spires. A public appeal, led by the then Dean of Melbourne, David Richardson, raised A$18 million to restore the spires and improve the interior of the building. The seven-year restoration project was completed in 2009, under the guidance of Falkinger Andronas Architects and Heritage Consultants (now Andronas Conservation Architecture). The restoration works were undertaken by Cathedral Stone and were acknowledged by the Australian Institute of Architects, the Victorian Chapter Heritage Architecture Award 2009 and the Lachlan Macquarie National Award for Heritage Architecture 2009.

As part of the work, stone heads of former dean David Richardson and philanthropist Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, created by Melbourne sculptor Smiley Williams and carved by stonemason Daryl Gilbert, were added to the spires and new dalle de verre glass was created by Janusz and Magda Kuszbicki for the west doors and the "Eighth Day" lantern in the Moorhouse Tower.

Besides Sunday and weekday Eucharists the cathedral "maintains the English tradition" of a daily choral Evensong, being the only Australian Anglican cathedral to do so.

St Paul's Cathedral is built on the site where the first public Christian service in Melbourne was conducted in 1835. The block was then a government reserve far from the centre of town to the west, and used as a corn market. By 1848 the site was then adjacent to the first Princes Bridge across the Yarra River, and the prominent site was granted to the Anglican Church. The bluestone Church of St Paul the Apostle was consecrated in 1852.