St James’ Church is the oldest church building
in the City of Sydney and has been in continuous use from its
consecration on 11 February 1824 to the present. It is a prime example
of the architectural work of the Macquarie period, designed by Francis
Greenway and built by convict labour. Subsequent changes to the building
and its contents exemplify the development of ecclesiastical thought and
practice in the Australian context. The church has always formed a
significant element within the city of Sydney, as a spiritual and
intellectual stimulus and as a centre of musical excellence and
community activity. While this contribution has been realised in various
ways over its long history, the reality of its work and its essential
characteristics have been maintained. The church has long been regarded
as a prime element of Sydney’s built environment and its conservation is
an example of a long history of heritage concern in the community.
The church contains a rare collection of 19th century marble memorials,
its painted Children’s Chapel is unique in Australia and it includes
amongst its collections and contents rare items of movable heritage.
St James’ Church is an integral part of the most extensive surviving group
of Macquarie period buildings in Australia, Macquarie's construction of
official Sydney in the eastern part of the city, which includes the
former Hyde Park Barracks, Supreme Court, General Hospital and
Government House stables. The church is the only building of this group
that retains its original function.
St James’ Church is located at the east end
and on the south side of King Street, Sydney and was constructed between
1819-1824. Set on an impressive sandstone base, the building is of face
brick with the walls articulated by brick piers. The elongated windows
have semi-circular heads with radiating rubbed bricks and protective
fish-scale pattern, green glazing has been installed in the windows on
the north side. On the east gable is a sandstone commemorative plaque
with the inscription ‘St James’s Church Erected 1820 Lachlan Macquarie
Esq. Governor’. The hipped roof is of slate with four gable vents on the
north and south sides. The detailing of the lower, eastern extension
(built in 1832-1833) is closely comparable with the original but with
sandstone piers and pediment and with a domed copper roof. The two small
porticos on the north and south sides, with sandstone columns and
pediments, complement the original and much larger central porticos. A
third small portico, added in 1894-1895, on the north side of the tower
is of comparable design. The south portico was filled in before the
building was completed and is now enclosed with glass. All of the
entrances have slate steps with sandstone risers and are tiled with
black and white marble. The square brick tower at the west end has a
timber framed, candle snuffer spire, clad in sheet copper with chevron
pattern, surmounted by a copper orb and cross. There is a peal of eight
bells in the tower.
The interior of the church, which is essentially as rebuilt in 1900-1902,
faces east and has a raised chancel and sanctuary (the latter set within
an apse with gold mosaic semi-dome) with marble and mosaic flooring,
flanked by the organ and choir. The chancel is separated from the main
body of the church by a wrought iron and brass screen with marble base
on which stand the cedar pulpit and brass lectern. The western gallery,
marble memorials and cedar panelling are parts of the 19th century
interior retained in the later work. The pews are open cedar benches and
the flooring is of polished timber blocks with white marble aisles with
a black key border. The stained glass windows are mainly English and of
20th century date with some 1890s coloured and painted glass, including
internal doors and fanlights. The pressed metal ceiling (installed in
1894-1895) has been adapted to improve ventilation and to accommodate
modern pendant lights. The font is on a raised marble platform in the
baptistery at the base of the tower. The emblems of St James the Great
are incorporated in various decorative elements of the interior
including stained and painted glass, pew ends and mosaic flooring. The
walls of the Chapel of the Holy Spirit (the southern portico), installed
in 1988, are a major contemporary glasswork which the chapel’s furniture
and fittings were specially designed to complement.
The original building has an extensive undercroft (called the crypt) with
sandstone walls and a central corridor with brick groined ceiling and
twelve brick barrel vaults. The flooring is concrete with slate tiles.
The basement beneath the eastern extension is of similar construction
but has a timber ceiling as does the entrance at the base of the tower.
The Children’s Chapel and columbarium are located in two of the bays of
the crypt. The church is enclosed with a decorative wrought iron fence
set on a sandstone base. (Annable 2004)
St James’ Church is an integral part of the group of surviving Macquarie
period buildings which also includes the former Hyde Park Barracks,
[Old] Supreme Court, General Hospital [the Mint and Parliament House]
and Government House offices and stables [Conservatorium of Music]. The
church is the only building of this group to retain its original
function.
The site for Sydney’s second church was
chosen by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1812, but it was not until 31
August 1819 that the foundation stone was laid, on George Street, for
his ‘grand metropolitan church’ of St Andrew. On 7 October 1819 the
Governor laid the foundation stone for another new building, a
courthouse at the north end of Hyde Park. Shortly afterwards, following
objections by the British government’s newly arrived Commissioner of
Enquiry, J T Bigge that St Andrew’s would take five years to complete, a
more modest plan for a second church was adopted and the intended
courthouse site arrogated to the purpose. By February 1820 a church, to
the design of the Civil Architect, Francis Greenway, was under
construction by government (convict) labour. Work on St Andrew’s was
suspended and finally abandoned in May 1820.
During 1820 work proceeded swiftly on the new church. By June the tower
basement had been completed, by October a disagreement about the form of
the entrances was settled in favour of square porticos and by November,
as the brickwork was nearing completion, the building was referred to as
St James’ Church. A stone plaque inscribed ‘St James’s Church Erected
1820 Lachlan Macquarie Esq. Governor’ was placed on the east gable and
in 1821 the building was roofed. In January 1822 the Revd William Cowper
held the first (and only) unofficial service in the empty building to
shelter his congregation from the Hyde Park Barracks from the weather.
The Principal Chaplain, the Revd Samuel Marden insisted that the
building should not be used until the legal formalities had been
properly attended to. In September 1822 the timber framework of the
spire was under construction. In November Greenway was dismissed from
government employment. Nothing is known of the work following Greenery's
departure, including finishing and furnishing the interior, but by the
time the church was ready for use the south portico had been enclosed
for use as the vestry.
St James’ Church was consecrated on 11 February 1824 by the Revd Samuel
Marsden, using a form of service for non-Episcopal consecration,
approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first baptism was held on
the same day. The church has been in continuous use for divine worship,
according to the rites of the Anglican Church, ever since. The building
was part Macquarie’s ‘official Sydney’, a group of government buildings
along the eastern ridge of the town. Bordering the Domain, Macquarie
Street and Hyde Park these included the Government Stables, the Light
Horse Barracks, Hospital, the Hyde Park Barracks, St James’ Church, the
Supreme Court and the Georgian School. Although the plan had been the
governor’s, the functions of the buildings on Hyde Park and the vagaries
of their construction, were a direct result of the intervention of
Commissioner Bigge and of the consequences of his Report on the
administration of the Colony. The church’s connection with ‘official’
Sydney was to be a formative and enduring aspect of its ministry.
The interior of the church was a simple, rectangular ‘preaching box’, with
a small holy table and tall, three-decker pulpit against the east wall
and a gallery at the west. All levels of society were accommodated and
the seating arrangements reflected the social divisions and distinctions
of the time. The high box pews were rented and free open benches were
provided at the back of the church for the poorer inhabitants and
visitors. A single entrance on the north portico served the main body of
the church. The prisoners and military were in the gallery which was
served by its own entrance in the tower. A small group of musicians and
choir led the music. In 1827 an organ by John Gray of London arrived and
was placed in the gallery. It was played for the first time on 7
October, the anniversary of laying the foundation stone of the intended
courthouse.
By the early 1830s more accommodation was needed and was provided by the
construction of a separate eastern gallery. In order to provide access,
an addition was made to the east end of the church with entrances on the
north and south sides from which stairs led up to the gallery. The small
sandstone ‘Doric porticos’ were modelled on the original porticos and
the architect was John Verge. The room in the centre of this addition
was used as the vestry. Changes were made to the interior arrangement of
the church to accommodate the new gallery and the loss of its original
eastward facing orientation. The pulpit was moved to the centre aisle,
facing the eastern gallery and the whole of the pews in the eastern half
of the church turned round to face the pulpit. The holy table was
brought forward of the gallery and surrounded by a circular communion
rail. This seating arrangement continued in use for the remainder of the
19th century.
From the 1830s to the 1850s St James’ was the fashionable town church. As
such it became the place in which to memorialise not only those who
worshipped there but also eminent colonists. In 1836 he church gained
ecclesiastical status when Bishop William Grant Broughton was installed
as Bishop of Australia in St James' and continued to use it as his
official church until he moved to St Andrew’s temporary cathedral in
1843. The first ordinations were held at St James’. From 1846 prisoners
no longer attended but with the growth of population after the gold rush
more seating was still needed and the galleries were extended to almost
encircle the interior. The pulpit was moved to the south wall (by the
present chapel) and the church retained this form until the turn of the
century.
From the 1840s under the Revd (later Canon) Robert Allwood (ultimately to
be the church’s longest serving incumbent) a Tractarian form of worship
was adopted. With more frequent celebration of the Holy Communion and
more elaborate music, St James’ developed a distinctive liturgy,
divergent from the increasingly Evangelical Diocese of Sydney, a
tradition that it still retains.
By the middle of the 19th century a move had begun to live in the suburbs
and the church was losing its resident population. Its architecture was
considered antique (even pagan) by comparison with the fashionable
Gothic style, for some the only ‘correct’ ecclesiastical architecture.
By the 1880s St. James' was in decline, its congregation dwindling and
the building in a bad state of repair. Moves for change were stalled by
its Parsonage Trustees, who did not wish to see the internal arrangement
of the church altered and who controlled the available funds for doing
so. Eventually in 1894-1895 an extensive programme of external
restoration was carried out by Varney Parkes. Much original fabric was
replaced including the roof timbers and the spire which was completely
rebuilt to a different design with new copper cladding. A new entrance
was made on the north side of the tower with a small portico modelled on
John Verge’s 1832-1833 additions. The north portico was opened up and
rebuilt and many late-Victorian details added to the building.
In 1900 after long discussion, the interior was totally remodelled to the
design of J H Buckeridge. To provide for a more elaborate ritual and a
liturgy centred on the altar, the interior of the church was totally
re-oriented. An apse, in the manner of St Matthew’s, Windsor, was
created by breaking through the original east wall of the church into
the Verge addition and a raised chancel and apse built against the east
wall, flanked by the organ. Almost all of the existing fittings and
furnishings were removed with the exception of the memorials and the
western gallery and new bench pews were installed. A modern interior was
created within a nineteenth century exterior. In 1902-1904 the south
portico was made into a side chapel and some decorative elements of the
1900 scheme were completed. The architect for the works was J Burcham
Clamp. With a renewed church building, the charismatic Carr Smith as its
rector and a distinctive liturgy the congregation of St James’ grew once
more. No longer resident in the city, its parishioners came from the
suburbs making the deliberate choice of association with St James’,
rather than their local church.
The interior arrangement of the church has remained essentially unaltered
with some changes to lighting and decoration, the dedication of the war
memorial in 1922 and the decoration of the semi-dome of the apse with
gold mosaic in 1961.
A programme of stonework repair and replacement was carried out in the
1950s, followed by much more extensive work in the early 1970. The crypt
was extensively renovated in 1976-1978.
In 1988 the side chapel in the south portico was redesigned as the Chapel
of the Holy Spirit, a bicentennial project. The original infilling
between the columns was demolished and replaced with glasswork. The
design, by David Wright, represents the landscape formed by the
interaction of earth, air, fire and water, symbolic of the action of the
Spirit in creation, in life and in rebirth in Christ. The furniture by
Leon Sadubin was specially commissioned for the new chapel and is of
cedar, in keeping with the rest of the church furnishings.
The large brick-vaulted undercroft or crypt beneath the church has served
many purposes including the verger's residence for over a century. From
the 1820s to 1840s the space was used by two of the parish schools and
some of the bays enclosed. Following the work carried out in the 1890s
and the revival of the congregation in the early 1900s, the space began
to be used for parish purposes. Various bays were converted for use for
meetings, offices, parish records and a columbarium. In 1929 the bay
next to the west entrance on the south side was painted by a group of
modernist artists, the Turramurra painters, under the direction of Ethel
Anderson. Designed as a chapel for children, the colourful murals
depicted the Christmas carol I Saw Three Ships, in the familiar setting
of a contemporary Sydney Harbour with the bridge under construction.
Officially named the Chapel of St. Mary and the Angels, it was better
known as the Children’s Chapel. Salt in the walls eventually caused
considerable deterioration and the loss of paint surface and the murals
were restored in 1992-1993.
A peal of eight bells was installed in the tower in 2003. (Annable 2004)
Special thanks to
http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/
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