Randwick Presbyterian Church

About

The Randwick Presbyterian Church is a heritage-listed Presbyterian church located at 162 Alison Road in the Sydney suburb of Randwick, New South Wales, Australia. The church was designed by Sir John Sulman and built from 1889 to 1890 by George Gale. The property is owned by the Randwick Presbyterian Church and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 8 May 2008.

Pre-1780s the local Aboriginal people in the area used the site for fishing and cultural activities; rock engravings, grinding grooves and middens remain in evidence. In 1789 Governor Arthur Phillip referred to "a long bay", which became known as Long Bay. Aboriginal people are believed to have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 20,000 years. The population of Aboriginal people between Palm Beach and Botany Bay in 1788 has been estimated to have been 1,500. Those living south of Port Jackson to Botany Bay were the Cadigal people who spoke Dharug, while the local clan name of Maroubra people was "Muru-ora-dial". By the mid-19th century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers.

One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received 12 acres bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads. In 1839 William Newcombe acquired the land north-west of the present town hall in Avoca Street.

Randwick takes its name from the town of Randwick, Gloucestershire, England. The name was suggested by Simeon Pearce (1821–86) and his brother James. Simeon was born in the English Randwick and the brothers were responsible for the early development of both Randwick and its neighbour, Coogee. Simeon had come to the colony in 1841as a 21-year-old surveyor. He built his Blenheim House on the 4 acres he bought from Marsh, and called his property "Randwick". The brothers bought and sold land profitably in the area and elsewhere. Simeon campaigned for construction of a road from the city to Coogee (achieved in 1853) and promoted the incorporation of the suburb. Pearce sought construction of a church modelled on the church of St. John in his birthplace. In 1857 the first St Jude's stood on the site of the present post office, at the corner of the present Alison Road and Avoca Street.

Randwick was slow to progress. The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-bus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt. Wind blew sand over the track, and the bus sometimes became bogged, so that passengers had to get out and push it free. From its early days, Randwick had a divided society. The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area. But the market gardens, orchards and piggeries that continued alongside the large estates were the lot of the working class. Even on the later estates that became racing empires, many jockeys and stablehands lived in huts or even under canvas. An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St. Paul's Street and Perouse Road. Here families lived in makeshift houses, taking on the most menial tasks in their struggle to survive.

In 1858 when the NSW Government passed the Municipalities Act, enabling formation of municipal districts empowered to collect rates and borrow money to improve their suburb, Randwick was the first suburb to apply for the status of a municipality. It was approved in February 1859, and its first Council was elected in March 1859.

Randwick had been the venue for sporting events, as well as duels and illegal sports, from the early days in the colony's history. Its first racecourse, the Sandy Racecourse or Old Sand Track, had been a hazardous track over hills and gullies since 1860. When a move was made in 1863 by John Tait, to establish Randwick Racecourse, Simeon Pearce was furious, especially when he heard that Tait also intended to move into Byron Lodge. Tait's venture prospered, however, and he became the first person in Australia to organise racing as a commercial sport. The racecourse made a big difference to the progress of Randwick. The horse-bus gave way to trams that linked the suburb to Sydney and civilisation. Randwick soon became a prosperous and lively place, and it still retains a busy residential, professional and commercial life.

Today, some of the houses have been replaced by home units. Many European migrants have made their homes in the area, along with students and workers at the nearby University of NSW and the Prince of Wales Hospital.

The founder and promoter of the village of Randwick was Simeon Pearce who envisaged the area as a " New Brighton " by the sea but also as a place that had many of the traditional English village qualities of his birthplace of Randwick in Gloucestershire. As a Commissioner of Church and School lands he was well placed to have areas of land set aside for church and school use, and in 1854 a large area of land was granted on the east side of Alison Park for Church of England use then in 1857 on the west side for the Presbyterian Church. Between the church lands, Simeon proposed a general cemetery but because of residents objections this became a cricket ground (later renamed to Alison Park).

The establishment of the Randwick Presbyterian Congregation

Up until the 1880s Sydney's Presbyterians had worshipped in Presbyterian churches located in Sydney City. However, in the 1880s this trend changed with a preliminary meeting of the Randwick Congregation in the Randwick Town Hall on 17 November 1884; the first Presbyterian service in Waverley was held on 17 January 1885; and in Woollahra on 12 February 1888.

An interim session was appointed by the Presbytery to assist the Randwick parishioners in establishing a church there and the Moderator Rev. Dr Gilchrist conducted the first session at the Town Hall on 4 August 1885. As a result, a committee of management was set up acting on the Church Code and considered a number of potential Ministers. The Rev Dr Will Scott Frackelton who arrived in Sydney from the United Kingdom in 1885, was appointed as the first Randwick Minister. He was inducted on 23 November at the Randwick Town Hall.

The new Minister, supported by the congregation, was convinced that a new church was required and initially the land granted for that purpose in 1857 was put aside in favour of private land in Avoca Street, however, the original grant was eventually taken up with part of the northern allotments being sold as unnecessary and the project for the new church was put in hand.

In 1886 the recently arrived English architect, John Sulman, made an offer to the new Randwick Presbyterian Congregation to draw up plans for a church to house the congregation. Sulman had excellent architectural credentials and came from an established and respected architectural practice in England which had designed at least 66 churches in England, many of them combining church schools, for non conformist churches including Presbyterian and Congregational denominations. It is noted that Sulman and his family travelled to Australia on the Orient Line ship RMS Austral in 1885, and it is likely that on this voyage he made the acquaintance of the first resident Minister of the Randwick congregation, the Rev. Will Scott Frackelton.

The initial design submitted by Sulman was subsequently published in the report of the Presbyterian Church Annual Meeting of 1886. While it is similar in design to the extant church this initial design was much larger in scale. Sulman subsequently submitted a revised design on 8 October 1888, with his professional practice partner Joseph Porter Power. A short period later a new Building Committee met and accepted Sulman and Power's design on condition that: it was built for A£ 4,000; that the church width be reduced to by six feet; and that it be built of brick with stone dressings instead of stucco on the front facade.

The church design as accepted by the Randwick Presbyterian Church was essentially a neo-classic design of Baroque derivation having its entrance facade dominated by two tall towers. A perspective of this design published in a number of newspapers is all that is known to remain of the architect's drawings. While the towers displayed in this plan were not undertaken (due to economic considerations) the extant church appears to be consistent with this plan.

A newspaper article of the period stated that "its internal arrangement which is at once novel and excellent, and will be found to be, so far as its acoustic properties are concerned, one of the best buildings of its class in the colony, whilst the congregation will have from every part an uninterrupted view of the preacher". It was also said that seating was provided on the ground floor for 441 and in the gallery for 226, allowing for the accommodation of 667 parishioners.

Randwick Presbyterian Church is attributed to John Sulman who designed churches in a number of styles including English Gothic ( Springwood ); Romanesque ( Manly and Woollahra), and was well known for preparing a large number of alternative styles for banks. It is speculated, however, that the final design may be due in part to the influence of the Minister Will Frackleton, who had travelled, preached and studied extensively in the United States of America. Its derivation is also most likely based on the standard Scottish T-Plan Church with galleries, a famous Sydney example being James Barnet 's c. 1854 Chalmers Presbyterian Church in Chalmers Street, Surry Hills. The interior with its gallery is also similar to St Andrew's Presbyterian Church at Evandale and the Pitt Street Congregational Church in Sydney. It has been noted that the first design submitted by Sulman in 1886 bears a striking resemblance to the c. 1814 First Scots Presbyterian Church of Charleston, South Carolina, with its large central portico, twin Baroque towers and a transverse classroom wing at the rear. It is noted that Sulman also travelled widely in Britain and Europe and may have been aware of a similar church built in Glasgow in 1870, being the Govan United Presbyterian Church designed by James Thomson.

It is considered that although the Sulman and Power design of the church was not of the usual Gothic revival style favoured at the time, it is related to a school of church architectural design based on neoclassic, particularly Greek Revival and Georgian designs that can be traced back to the churches of the convict architect Francis Greenway. It was of a style not uncommon in Sydney up to that time although the proposed twin towers (not built) were a departure in the design for a suburban parish church.

The building contract was awarded to the prominent Sydney builder and resident of Randwick, Mr George Gale, who had been responsible for building many projects including works for the noted Melbourne architect, William Pitt, who designed the Princess Theatre and the Rialto Buildings amongst many during Melbourne's building boom.