ALL SOULS’ CHURCH
ST PETERS, ADELAIDE ANGLICAN
PAUL SCOTT
I discover All Souls’ Church in St Peters after living many years in Adelaide. Is this the prettiest church in Adelaide? Let us see!
A brief history of this Church is given below. However, if you want to begin your tour of the Church immediately, tap / click on START below. You can also access intermediate points in the tour by a tap / click on the following links:
SATELLITE VIEW
The Church is placed on an interesting angled block of land in the inner suburb of St Peters, bounded by Stephen Terraace and Third Avenue. Narrow Third Lane makes up a third side of the boundary.
We have superimposed a compass rose on the Church to indicate the liturgical directions as applied to this Church. The main axis of this Church is such that geographically the sanctuary lies in a direction about 30° south of east. On this site we shall use liturgical directions (with for example, East with a capital E). With this convention the sanctuary lies in an Easterly direction, with other directions indicated by the compass rose.
For our exploration of the exterior of All Souls’, we shall begin on Stephen Terrace, on the other side of the street from the Church, near the extension of Third Lane. We walk along the Stephen Terrace footpath, turning left at Third Avenue, still on the far side of the street from the Church. This brings us to Coles Hall, which belongs to the Church. We next cross Third Avenue to be close to the Church, and walk back around the Church in a clockwise direction, finishing at Third Lane.
PLAN
We shall find this old plan in the interior of the Church.
The Church is cruciform in shape, with small transepts to the North and South. The main entry is just North of the West window. The Northeast corner is filled in with a choir room and the Rector’s study. I am intrigued by the large tower built above the choir room. A bell tower? But unusual in that it is offset from the crossing. The sanctuary extends out a little with a semicircular apse. There is also an addition to the Southeast to house the organ. Finally, not shown on the plan, but visible from the satellite view, there is also an added hall, Kay Hall, in the Southeast corner of the property.
HISTORY
Year Built: 1883; rebuilt 1916
Address: Cnr Stephen Terrace and Third Avenue
The original church 1883 to 1914
The first church bearing the name of All Souls’ in the suburb of St Peter dates from 1883. When the East Adelaide Land and Investment company offered two alignments on Sixth Avenue to the Church of England on the condition a church was erected immediately. A weatherboard edifice with seating for 360 was quickly erected and on 2 November 1883, ‘All Souls’ Day’ the white wooden church was licensed for worship. The name of the church reflected the Oxford Movement inspired High Church Anglicanism of its foundation minister The Revd Arthur Dendy. At that time few churches observed All Saints Day, regarding it to be a ‘Romish’ practice. In 1910 the name of the church would be caught up in the public controversy over the keeping of All Souls Day between Canon Wise of St George's Goodwood, the stronghold of Anglo Catholicism, and Bishop Nutter Thomas of Adelaide.
Discussions about a new church were first conducted in 1898, and in 1902 the Church Vestry decided not to build on the vacant block in Sixth Avenue in order to find a more central and convenient position. The next year the parish paid just over £187 to purchase a vacant block on 31 Third Avenue, although this block would be sold off in 1911. As early as 1898 the choirmaster and eminent architect Alfred Wells had submitted plans for a new church, but the congregation opted to build a new parsonage. Thereafter planning for a new church stalled until the arrival in February 1907 of a new minister, Canon Wilfred Murphy, whose driven personality would lead to the construction of the present All Souls’ Church.
A new and noble church
The design and building of All Souls Church in what the doyenne of Australian Gothic, Brian Andrews, referred to as a double "groundbreaking style”, is derived from the professional skill of its architect, Alfred Wells, and the vision of presiding minister Canon Wilfred Murphy. Wilfred Murphy was born in Bideford, Devon, and spent his early years on sailing ships, twice rounding Cape Horn. After training as a minister in Canterbury in 1891, he arrived in South Australia, undertaking strenuous pastoral work across the north of the State during a time of drought. Further appointments followed around South Australia until 1907 the Murphy family came to All Souls.
Murphy found a dilapidated church building where, as he described it in the All Souls’ Parish Magazine, our church building is getting older and frail, and its seams have a way of opening to let in the weather”. In that same magazine issue he exhorted his parishioners “in imagination I see a new and noble church with lofty roof, a fine chancel, wide aisles, good organs, tower and bells.” (Parish Magazine February 1908 page 3)
Already in September 1907 the present site of the Church had been purchased for £570. Murphy was determined to build a church equal to any other in Adelaide and cited the Bishop of Ballarat, The Right Reverend Arthur Green, who in 1901 scathingly remarked that many Australian churches were “mean, paltry and hideous worship sheds”. (Baker. The Development of Decorative Arts in Australia 2004 p282). In September 1908 Alfred Wells, a former choirmaster and honorary architect of All Souls’, submitted plans to the Parish building committee. This plan was very much in the Byzantine style of John Bentley’s great Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral of 1903. Murphy’s vision of All Souls’ was firmly based upon personal preferences and his standing with the Anglican hierarchy. He appeared to be on excellent terms with the Bishop of Adelaide, Arthur Nutter Thomas, to the extent that he managed to persuade the Bishop, contrary to his usual hostile stand on transepts, to approve their incorporation into the design of All Souls’ on the practical grounds of their use as a baptistry and week-day chapel.
In October 1908 the Building Committee appointed by the Vestry held a meeting in the Rectory with Wells and unanimously adopted the plan he had produced at an estimated cost of £4,500. From the pen and ink sketch of the new edifice published in the September 1908 issue of the All Souls’ Parish Magazine, Wells proposed a classic Byzantine design with a campanile, a central dome of high arches, and coloured bands of brick and rendering wrapped around the entire building with fenestration sat high above the base of the church. In a letter to his parishioners Canon Murphy wrote: “If we erect this new Church according to Mr Wells’ plans we shall have a glorious and beautiful edifice, lofty, spacious, suited in every way to our climate and quite different in design to any other Church in the diocese, perhaps I might say in Australia”.
In the November 1908 issue of the Parish Magazine Canon Murphy lauded the suitability of the proposed design for its environmental reasons, observing “There are of course, a few who would prefer a Church in a different style of architecture, but it is generally recognised that the Byzantine type is the best for a hot climate”.
Immediately, determined fund raising efforts commenced to build the new church. The aptly named Guild of Perseverance spent years soliciting donations over and above normal contributions through a small, dedicated band of volunteers drawn from the congregation. It seems likely the protracted fund raising resulted over time in a down scaling of the more ambitious aspects of the original design. In October 1911 Wells submitted a modified version of the proposed church and the hope was expressed that building would commence in 1912, but again difficulties with securing both sufficient funds and loan guarantors delayed the project. It is indicative of Canon Murphy’s view of the new church that when the example of St George the Martyr at Goodwood, the centre of Anglo Catholicism and Gothic decoration, was suggested he tartly retorted “People ask me about Goodwood. I have never been inside Goodwood Church and neither know what is done there or what is taught” (Parish Magazine June 1913 p2.).
Building of the new Church
Despite these problems and the outbreak of war in 1914, by April 1915 the Annual Vestry meeting resolved unanimously to commence construction with a revised budget of £3,700. In response to those who wished to defer the project until War’s end, Canon Murphy argued that financial conditions were favourable to borrow money now rather than later, construction costs had fallen and building the church would provide badly needed work for local tradesmen who were experiencing a major downturn in new business. In July 1915 Wells presented a revised version of the Byzantine style church and tenders were called. The builders Emmett & Son were selected out of no less than 20 tenders and construction began at once. The final plan for All Souls’ saw a tower and spire replace the Campanile, the central high arches revised and the transepts modified. Wells was entrusted with designing the furniture and fittings and Emmett & Son were given the contract for the carpentry. Even as the building was taking shape Canon Murphy was launching an appeal to finance a War Memorial Window where “Friends of the fallen may appreciate this opportunity of commemorating their beloved dead”. (Parish Magazine December 1915 p3).
By New Year 1916 the new furniture had been approved for manufacture with much attention devoted to ensure the seating was both comfortable and in keeping with the structure of the Church itself. In furtherance of this concept of an integrated architectural production Wells also designed the new organ case. By May 1916 construction was completed and on May 31 Bishop Nutter Thomas, in the presence of the Governor Sir Henry Galway and a large congregation, formally dedicated the new church. As a corollary to these proceedings Canon Murphy was taken aback to learn that until the Church mortgage was paid off, All Souls’ was excluded from representation in the Synod. It would take another decade of difficult fund raising before All Souls’ had cleared the debt and was finally consecrated by the Bishop in December 1926, just four months before Canon Murphy stepped down after 20 years as Rector.
