St Andrew's Church and Halls
1552-1562 Malvern Road, GLEN IRIS VIC 3146 - Property No 74638
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The church complex of St Andrew's at 1552-62 Malvern Road Glen Iris consisting of Wesley Hall c1920, St Andrew's church reconstructed from the former Free Church of Scotland Church in Rathdowne Street Carlton in (1939) are of primary significance. The additional Hall (c.1960) is of secondary significance.
How is it significant?
St Andrew's church complex is of local historical, architectural and social significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
The reconstructed church of St Andrew's at Gardiner is still able to demonstrate a link to the Free Church of Scotland through its history and building fabric. The Free Church of Scotland or 'Gaelic Church' was a small but influential splinter group of the Presbyterians formed following a schism within the Presbyterian Church in 1846 and the church, when it was in Rathdowne Street Carlton was larger than many Presbyterian churches, indicating the importance of the Free Church in the 1850s.
St Andrew's church complex is able to demonstrate the development of the Gardiner locality through the Glen Iris Progress Association, and in particular through the efforts of Canon Tucker to secure a site and building for use by the Presbyterians of the district.
The remaining buildings of different periods, styles and materials show the growth and development of the parish over a seventy year period when in 1910 Gardiner was little more than a railway station, through to its establishment as a suburb. (Criterion A)
The church design is unusual in that it has been adapted from the former Free Church of Scotland through the use of the building fabric including stone masonry, timber trusses, pews, and other timber fixtures. The central tower is a design feature of the English Church but in this case it almost completely dominates the front elevation. The interior provides a record through its memorial windows of other churches in the immediate area including the Ewing Memorial Church and the former Wesley Church, Burke Road, Glen Iris.
It is significant as a work by the architect John Scarborough whose firm Scarborough Robertson and Love were responsible for the fine Littlejohn Chapel at Scotch College. (Criterion E)
St Andrew's contains many memorials in its fittings, windows and the remembrance garden that are associated with present and past family members of the parish. (Criterion G)-
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St Andrew's Church and Halls - Physical Description 1
The site on which St Andrew's is situated comprises three buildings on the corner of Malvern Road and Burke Road. The site is bounded at the rear by St Andrews lane on the other side of which is the manse. The buildings comprise the bluestone church originally erected in Carlton in 1855 and re-erected on this site in 1939, Wesley Hall of c.1920, and a large hall c. 1960 at the rear. There is a small carpark off Malvern Road and a garden with exotic trees and some detailed plantings around the church. Several earlier buildings associated with this site are not longer extant. These include the first St Andrew's church of 1915, the manse and the kindergarten. The c1960 hall was built on the site of the church. The manse and kindergarten were demolished and a new manse and medium density development has been developed on the site.
The Presbyterians were late advocates of the Gothic style of church building, however their adoption of it like the Methodist, was wholehearted and once begun resulted in some very fine churches using the central tower as a defining element of the composition.
St Andrew's has been reconstructed from the building elements of the original Gaelic Church. It is noted as a reconstruction of the original church design however it differs in a number of ways from the original design. The existing design has an axial plan with a side porch, however the original was that of a cruciform plan. The tower has been re-constructed in a much plainer manner and there appear to be numerous changed architectural details. Although the material might be the same, St Andrews is clearly not the same building as the Gaelic Church.
St Andrews is a Gothic revival church with a dominant tower as the central component of the east (Burke Road) elevation. The nave is buttressed and lancet windows are set into each bay. The gable roof is of slate. The interior has laminated timber trusses and the ceiling is coved and decorated with timber strapping. The pews are the original ones from the former Gaelic Church. There is one triptych of memorial windows from a former Methodist church,and other fine memorial windows to the east and north elevations. The side chapel is separated from the nave by large diameter columns. The interior is plastered and has a decorative plaster dado and moulded window reveals. There is a timber seat with panelling in the sanctuary.
There is a memorial garden established in 1986 contained within a low fence and with detailed plantings.
Wesley Hall is a inter-war brick and render building by Eggleston and Oakley. It features intersecting gable roofs of terra cotta tile and panels of rendered wall surface set between a 'frame' of face brickwork in clinker brick. The windows are timber frame sashes. The extension of the building in 1929 was done in matching style.
The most recent building is the large hall located to the rear of the site and designed in a modern style by K. Murray Foster, architect. It has a low pitched gable roof and a partially glazed wall to the east. Wall panels below are of pebble dash panels and the overhanging eaves have exposed rafters that contribute to the modern appearance by keeping the edge of the roof to be thin. Towards the car park the hall utilizes the slope and has a lower floor. It is joined to the interwar building by a covered way.
Both the 1921 Wesley hall and the church hall of 1958 are typical buildings of their eras.
St Andrew's Church and Halls - Historical Australian Themes
Themes from Stonnington Thematic Environmental History:
10.2.1 Founding churches
10.2.3 Churches as an illustration of key phases of suburban development
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - Churches and Halls in the City of Stonnington - Heritage Citations Project 2010
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 2010
Grading: A2
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