EAST CAMBERWELL BAPTIST CHURCH
137-139 Highfield Road CAMBERWELL, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
East Camberwell Baptist Church complex at 137-139 Highfield Road Camberwell, built 1923, with the hall built in 1925 is significant.
How is it significant?
East Camberwell Baptist Church and hall is of historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara. The 1961 education building is of historic significance only.
Why is it significant?
East Camberwell Baptist Church is historically significant for its demonstration of the growth of non-conformist churches in the eastern part of Camberwell during the 1920s and 30s. The domestically scaled church and hall reflects the small but dedicated group of parishioners who purchased the large site and planned the building of the church and its adjacent hall. The complex formerly comprising church, hall and tennis courts (now removed) is historically significant for its demonstration of the role that churches played in social life, including kindergarten, sporting and youth activities, playgroups and after school clubs, continuing into the 1980s. The educational building dating from 1961 demonstrates the later activities of the parish and their intention to adapt to the needs of the community. (Criterion A)
Aesthetically, East Camberwell Baptist Church is a modest example of Interwar church architecture, borrowing from the domestic style of the time through the use of face red brick and terra cotta tile in a simple rectangular form with a projecting porch. Decorative gable end strapping over render and fine lattice work are particular features of the gable ends to the porch and main body of the church. Other features that define the building include the projecting eaves supported on decorative timber brackets and the red brick fence on Highfield Road, featuring red brick piers and panels with bull-nosed capping and a pipe railing. The hall is significant for its large contemporary styled stained glass window in shades of blue and green and its complementary form and materials. The two buildings are complemented by their setting of lawn and plantings. The complex has a high degree of integrity when compared with some other examples of Interwar churches. (Criterion E)
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EAST CAMBERWELL BAPTIST CHURCH - Physical Description 1
The East Camberwell Baptist Church complex occupies a large site at the corner of Highfield Road and Hunter Street and comprises two Interwar and one Post-war building and a carpark. Facing Highfield Road, the church is a simple Interwar structure with gable roof and projecting porch. The walls are of face red brick with stepped buttresses, between which are square headed sash windows with openable top light sashes. The gable ends have render, lattice and timber strapwork projecting forward of the wall plane and supported by small corbels. The eaves are supported on timber brackets and the terra cotta tiled roof has roof ventilators. The fence is in red brick with piers, a pipe railing and bull nosed capping. It appears to be contemporary with the church.
The hall, built soon after the church and facing Hunter Street, is in matching red brick gabled roof construction and is a plainer version of the church. Itis enlivened by a projecting central panel with a large modern blue and green stained glass window set around a cross motif as the frame. Brickwork detailing is confined to the eaves where there is a corbelling of several rows of bricks to from an eave. The hall matches the church in scale and form but is less decorative in its architecture. To the rear of both buildings are small additions. The architectural character of the church and hall is more residential than ecclesiastical.
To the rear of the site is a 1961 building of simple modernist design. The whole complex has a high degree of integrity and is complements by plantings and open space between the buildings
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study: Vol. 2 Camberwell
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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