St Paul's Anglican Church is a heritage-listed Anglican church and columbarium at 554 Vulture Street East, East Brisbane, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Atkinson & Conrad and built in 1924 by J Hood. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 7 February 2014.
History St Paul's, an Anglican brick church on Vulture Street in East Brisbane, was built in 1924 and designed by Brisbane Diocesan architects, Atkinson and Conrad. The church dates from a pronounced period of expansion for the Anglican Church in Queensland, when many new ecclesiastical buildings were constructed, especially in the Brisbane Diocese.
Much of the area comprising what is now East Brisbane, traditional country of the Yuggera and Turrbal people, was purchased from the Crown in 1855 by Joseph Darragh. It was the eventual subdivision of this property, and other large estates into allotments in the mid-1880s which established East Brisbane as a residential suburb. Prior to this, it was semi-rural in character, with a few isolated families scattered through the area, and a number of elite estates along the river. The electric tramway reached Woolloongabba/East Brisbane in 1897, and in 1901 an extension through East Brisbane to Norman Park was constructed. The provision of this cheap, efficient form of public transport encouraged further settlement in the East Brisbane area. From the 1910s to the 1930s, it grew gradually.
Anglican church services commenced in East Brisbane in 1887, when a curate from St Mary's, Kangaroo Point, began conducting services in a building owned by Charles Ewbank called "The Grange" (now 17 Didsbury Street) from 14 January 1887. A site was acquired on the corner of Vulture and Edgar Streets (559 Vulture Street East, ), where a timber church, also initially used for Sunday School, was opened 1 December 1887. From 1889 St Paul's was serviced by priests from Holy Trinity parish at Woolloongabba before returning to St Mary's parish in 1895. St Paul's was then serviced by the Church Mission until 1921, when it was raised to "parochial district" status.Jennifer Harrison and Barry Greaves, The Brisbane Anglican companion: a dictionary of the Diocese of Brisbane 1859-2009; The Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane, Brisbane, 2008, p.63Brisbane Courier, 1 December 1887, p.1.
In 1912 the priest attached to St Paul's, Morgan Baker, and the church community began working towards the establishment of a new church. By Easter 1914 a building fund had raised over £400. Fundraising continued through the 1910s but was disrupted by World War I.Brisbane Courier, 24 April 1914, p.6Brisbane Courier, 10 December 1917, p.11Church Chronicle, 1 March 1924, p.57Church Chronicle, 1 March 1924, p.51Church Chronicle, 1 September 1924, p.174Church Chronicle, 1 October 1924, p.200Julie Vincent, History of St Paul's Church, East Brisbane, compiled for the 75th anniversary of the dedication of St Paul's Church, 1999, unpublished monograph (n.p).
The election of Gerald Sharp as Archbishop of the Diocese of Brisbane in 1921 heralded an important expansion phase for the Anglican Church in Queensland. Over the next ten years 57 new churches were built in the Brisbane Diocese and over 30,000 new members were received into communion. Timber (considered temporary) churches were mainly built in new parishes, while many brick (permanent) churches replaced earlier structures at older parishes. Large-scale building projects also occurred at church schools, including the Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) at East Brisbane, during this period.Jennifer Harrison and Barry Greaves, The Brisbane Anglican companion: a dictionary of the Diocese of Brisbane 1859-2009, p.145Keith Rayner, The History Of The Church Of England In Queensland: A Thesis Submitted to The University of Queensland For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, December 1962, pp. 209–210.
By 1922, renewed activity under Reverend George Neal saw a committee established to build the new church. A large meeting chaired by Archbishop Sharp was held in July to consider whether a new church should be built in timber or brick. The committee emphasised the need to act as soon as possible, as the present building was inadequate for its needs. The vote for a brick church was "practically unanimous".Brisbane Courier, 21 June 1922, p.8. St Paul's attained the status of parish in 1923 and in June 1923 the Corporation of the Synod of the Diocese of Brisbane formally acquired a new site for St Paul's on the corner of Vulture Street and Balmoral Terrace.Jennifer Harrison; Barry Greaves, The Brisbane Anglican companion : a dictionary of the Diocese of Brisbane 1859–2009, p.63The State of Queensland (Dept Of Natural Resources and Mines), Certificate of Title 11369106. The elevated site, "nearer the tramline and in a more conspicuous position",Church Chronicle, 1 March 1924, p.51. was consciously chosen to enhance the prominence of the church within the suburb. At a fundraising event in November, Canon Francis de Witt Batty commended the decision to bring St Paul's Church out of "comparative obscurity into the light of day", while also noting "Brisbane had awakened at last to its duty in the matter of church building".Brisbane Courier, 26 November 1923, p.14.
In January 1924 diocesan architects, Atkinson and Conrad, produced a design for the new church at East Brisbane. The firm, (operating in 2013 as Conrad Gargett Riddel) began in 1890 as the practice of Henry Atkinson (1866–1938) who had previously worked as an architect in the Queensland Public Works department. Charles McLay, a former colleague, was admitted into the practice in 1907. McLay was appointed Diocesan Architect in 1916 following the resignation of Robin Dods. The position of Diocesan Architect was passed to Atkinson in 1918 following the death of McLay. Arnold Conrad, who had worked for Atkinson and McLay since 1912 was appointed partner and the firm was renamed Atkinson and Conrad Architects. In 1922 Atkinson travelled to Europe to study church architecture. The firm (from 1938 as Conrad and Gargett), continued to provide church and school designs for the diocese over the next fifty years. Other buildings designed by Atkinson and Conrad and entered in the Queensland Heritage Register are Craigston (1928 apartment building) and the Balmoral Fire Station (1927).
The new St Paul's church was designed as a nave with an extended semicircular-planned chancel attached to its east end, a side porch at its west end, side vestries for organ and choir, a belfry and attached buttress piers. White banding on facebrick (known as the "blood and bandage" style) featured both internally and externally. Up to 250 people could be accommodated within the church in addition to the choir. Provision was also made for a lych gate and rubble stone wall (at the time claimed to be the first for a church in Queensland).Email to applicant Dr Louise Floyd from Dr Robert Riddell, Conrad and Gargett (dated 13 June 2013)Brisbane Courier, 26 January 1924, p.6. The Lych gate at St Andrew's, Lutwyche was completed in the same year. Lych gates, sheltered gateways at the entrance of a church ground, traditionally where clergy met corpses and conducted part of a funeral service, became increasingly popular elements of Australian Anglican church design during the interwar period, often dedicated as war memorials. The "Seek and ye shall find" inscription over the St Paul's gateway was carved by Reverend Neal.Julie Vincent, History of St Paul's Church, East Brisbane, compiled for the 75th anniversary of the dedication of St Paul's Church, 1999, unpublished monograph (n.p).
The design by Atkinson and Conrad for St Paul's was an example of the type of modern ecclesiastic architecture that was widely used during the 1920s and 1930s. While such places incorporated traditional elements and symbology, designs were broadly characterised by a more simplified and freer approach than 19th century Gothic Revival examples, and featured less complicated ornamentation, large plain wall expanses and the "honest" use of materials. Brick was the preferred construction material, which (as "permanent" churches), allowed for consecration within the Anglican Church.
Atkinson and Conrad produced a similar but less detailed design for the Canon Jones Memorial Church in 1923 at the nearby Anglican Church Grammar School in East Brisbane (established in 1917). Other similar churches designed by Atkinson and Conrad for the Brisbane Diocese in the 1920s include those built in Sherwood, Wilston, and St Alban's Chapel at The Southport School.
In a 1929 presentation to the Church of England Men's Society, Arnold Conrad discussed a number of church design philosophies. "A church is a house of God", he stated, "...and all our efforts in church building should be directed to the greatest degree in assisting the worshippers to the right frame of mind. We should create the right spiritual emotion by surrounding the worshippers with beauty, and so lift men's minds that their souls may be brought into closer harmony with God".Brisbane Courier, 29 January 1929, p.3.
Architectural elements outlined by Conrad to achieve this goal included: brick construction over timber, with bare treatments to interior walls; large windows at the rear of the church and side windows on the chancel (rather than behind the altar); low-toned cathedral glass in simple leaded design where stained glass was not affordable, naves that were long rather than wide, and internal roofing wholly of wood, with heavy timber for open trussed roofs, stained with a dull finish to create "an interesting and dignified treatment". Such elements are readily apparent at St Paul's and other churches of the 1920s designed by Atkinson and Conrad. In particular, the use of substantial timber roof trussing in the nave (a word derived from the Latin word navis for ship), resembling the interior of a ship's hull, expressed the longstanding symbolism of the church as a ship, guiding its members to safe harbour.
The tender of Red Hill builder J Hood, of just over £5000, was accepted for the erection of the church in late January 1924. Hood had recently completed St Matthew's Church in Sherwood. Reverend Neal and W Scott turned the first sod on 5 February, with the former laying the first brick on 14 February. The foundation stone was laid on 23 March by Archbishop Sharp and construction occurred over the next 6 months.Brisbane Courier, 26 January 1924, p.6.
Including St Paul's, eleven new Anglican churches were constructed during 1924 in the Brisbane Diocese.Keith Rayner The History Of The Church Of England In Queensland, pp.209-210Queensland Times, 18 June 1924, p.7. This boom occurred within a much wider context of surging building activity and expansion in Brisbane during the 1920s, reflecting a level of prosperity that had not been seen in the city since the 1880s. By 1929, Greater Brisbane boasted a population of 284,758 people, a substantial increase from an estimated 209,946 in 1921.Brisbane Between the Wars: A History by Design , University of Queensland Library, online exhibition In early 1923 it was claimed the new buildings and improvements underway or planned constituted "the biggest building boom in the history of the city".The Queenslander, 13 January 1923, p.14. Over the next few years the built environment of the city and growing suburban areas was rapidly transformed. As one of Brisbane's leading architectural firms, Atkinson and Conrad were closely involved in this process, designing numerous commercial, civic and residential buildings.