ST DAVID'S UNITING CHURCH
902A Burke Road CANTERBURY, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The brick church, known as St David's Uniting Church (1926), parsonage (1927) and brick fence at 902a Burke Road, Canterbury are significant. The 1958 Church Hall is Contributory.
How is it significant?
St David's Uniting Church is of local historical, aesthetic, architectural and social significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
St David's Uniting Church, adjacent parsonage and church hall are of local historical and social significance. It is associated with the Methodist Church established on the site in 1908 and represents the growth and development of the Church across the twentieth century. The church and parsonage remain in occupation by the Uniting Church, as does the church hall which together demonstrate the ongoing evolution of the site. (Criterion A and G)
St David's Uniting Church is of aesthetic/architectural significance as a highly intact version of the Interwar Gothic style and polygonal church plan form, designed by noted architects H.W. & F.B. Tompkins. The building features a well resolved and finely detailed design that belongs stylistically to the Gothic Revival popularised in the Interwar period for ecclesiastical buildings. The finely detailed tracery window, angled pays and highly decorative feature entablature of stuccoed quatrefoils capped with a decorative moulding are of particular note. (Criteria D & E)
The site also represents an intact church and parsonage combination, with the Parsonage designed by noted Methodist architect Alec S. Eggleston. The parsonage derives its aesthetic from the adjacent church, with Gothic inspired detailing in an interwar attic form. The finely detailed porch, constructed in sympathy to the Church adjacent is of particular note. The original fence is also significant as surviving fabric that echoes the design ethos of the church and parsonage. (Criterion D)
The Church Hall is of contributory significance for its associations with noted architects Godfrey & Spowers, Hughes, Mewton & Lobb and for its demonstration of the ongoing development and use of the site. (Criteria A and H)
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ST DAVID'S UNITING CHURCH - Physical Description 1
St David's Uniting Church is located on the corner of Mont Albert and Burke roads, Canterbury. The site comprises the 1926 church, 1927 parsonage and 1958 church hall.
Church
St David's Uniting Church is a clinker and red brick structure in an Interwar Gothic Revival style.
A bluestone plinth runs around the main frontage of the building, with the rear plinth and walls constructed in red and clinker brick. It is noted that the church joins a red brick toilet block at the rear, with stepped brick parapet details. The date of this building is unknown.
The roof of the main church form is clad in terracotta tiles with gable ventilators across the frontage. The church is a polygonal plan form, developed and frequently used in suburban church design of the 1920s. The plan is evident in the external form, with the main gable fronting the street offset by the angled bays that connect to the transverse gable forming the cruciform shape.
The main (north) facade of the Church is a central gable with lower entry vestibule accessed via a short flight of bluestone steps. The entry vestibule features two flanking gables around a central entrance with timber panel door. The entrance is a stuccoed segmental arch with stripped archivolts and stone boss mouldings. Above the arch is a moulded stringcourse and rendered parapet rising to a central pediment with a stuccoed shield. The flanking gables are divided from the entrance with clinker brick buttresses, with stuccoed offsets that rise to join the stringcourse and decorative parapet. The stringcourse forms the coping of the gables that break the parapet line. The gables feature a central lancet window with a trefoil tracery and stained glass. The architrave is stuccoed with quoining, and the pointed head is finished with a label mould and stop. Above the central porch, a large panel tracery window fills the central bay with central rosette window and trefoil lights in stucco. The architrave is moulded, and rises through to the centre of the gable where it is capped with a stylised crucifix finial. The flanking buttresses are larger, with stuccoed offsets rising to central gablet forms with further decorative mouldings on the face.
The main body of the church rises above the front entry porch, with buttresses creating a central bay and dividing the main gable from the angled bays of the polygonal plan. The buttresses to the angled bays have lower stuccoed offsets, trefoil gablet at the three-quarter point, and a decorative moulded capping that connects to the coping of the main parapet. The bays are punctuated with a pair of lancet windows with trefoil tracery and stuccoed spandrel panel and surrounds, with label mould matching the main frontage. The bay is capped with a decorative corbel table and highly decorative feature entablature of stuccoed quatrefoils capped with a decorative moulding.
The side gables are simpler in detail, divided into three by matching buttresses. The buttresses are capped with small gablet trefoils finished in stucco. The central bay features a triple light stained glass window with stuccoed spandrel panels, and this is flanked by single lancet windows on either side. The upper section of the gable features two small arched windows with stucco heads and a stringcourse sill.
Parsonage
The parsonage is an interwar, attic villa of clinker brick and roughcast with a terracotta tile roof. Stylistically, the parsonage is a projecting balcony villa, as popularised by architects like Blackett and Forster from 1912. This was a local variant of the single-ridged Craftsman type popular throughout the 1910s and 20s (Clare 1984:54-55). A large transverse gable roof fronts the street, with central gable sleep-out and paired clinker brick chimneys set at an angle to the main roof. A central porch breaks the composition, and the porch has been detailed in sympathy with the adjacent church. The simplified Gothic porch features heavy rendered piers with incised detail flanking a central gable. The opening is a segmental arch with stripped archivolt details and a plinth. The porch is accessed via stairs. The remainder of the dwelling is generally of the period, the windows are timber framed double hung sashes, and the front and some side windows feature Adamesque lead lighting (Bick 1988-89:233). The eastern elevation features two smaller gables extending from the main gable, and a single storey weatherboard section is located to the rear. The house appears intact, although it is noted that the former sleep-out has been infilled.
Church Hall
The 1958 building is constructed of cream face brick with a pitched tiled roof and transverse gable form. Fronting Mont Albert Road, the building presents as a blank gable, with long transverse gable form running west towards Burke Road. The windows are generally timber, and a full height window wall faces north along the rear section of the building. The main hall of the building features interesting angled sides.
Fence
The complex is surrounded by a low height clinker brick fence with gable brick capping. The fence appears original or early, and conforms with the church and parsonage stylistically.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study: Vol. 1 Canterbury
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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