St Luke's Anglican Church is a heritage-listed
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
at Elizabeth Drive,
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Australia. It was designed by
Francis Greenway
Francis Howard Greenway (20 November 1777 – September 1837) was an English-born architect who was transported to Australia as a convict for the crime of forgery. In New South Wales he worked for the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, as Australia's ...
and built from 1818 to 1820. The property is owned by the Anglican Parish of Liverpool and is the oldest still existing Anglican church in Australia. It was added to the
New South Wales State Heritage Register
The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...
on 2 April 1999.
History
Commissioned by Governor
Lachlan Macquarie
Major-general (United Kingdom), Major General Lachlan Macquarie, Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (; gd, Lachann MacGuaire; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie se ...
and designed by
Francis Greenway
Francis Howard Greenway (20 November 1777 – September 1837) was an English-born architect who was transported to Australia as a convict for the crime of forgery. In New South Wales he worked for the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, as Australia's ...
, St Luke's Church was built in 1818–1819 as part of Macquarie's establishment plan for the town of Liverpool. It was the smallest of the three major church designs commissioned by Macquarie from Greenway, the others being
St James' Church in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and
St Matthew's Anglican Church in . A rectory was built about the same time but was replaced in 1840.
The site for Liverpool was marked out by Macquarie in 1810. St Luke's was one of the original public buildings for the town. Its foundation stone was laid in 1818. Its original builder
Nathaniel Lucas
Nathaniel Lucas (1764–1818) was a convict transported to Australia on the First Fleet. His occupation was listed as carpenter.
Life
Lucas was born in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, to parents John Lucas & Mary Bradford in 1764. Lucas was tr ...
died at an early stage and the job was taken over by James Smith.
The Rev. Robert Cartwright was the first Minister and the first service was held on
St. Luke's Day, 18 October 1819. Governor Macquarie attended a service in December 1820. The building was not fully completed until the early 1820s. A rectory and school building, since demolished, were built close by.
The oldest extant associated building on the site is the church hall, part of which dates from the 1840s.
Rev. James Walker, described by William Woolls as "one of the most learned men who ever came to the colonies", was an Oxford MA, had been chaplain at
George Town,
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...
, before
William Broughton appointed him to the new incumbency of
Marsfield
Marsfield is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marsfield is located 16 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Ryde.
T ...
and the headmastership of
The King's School in 1843. Walker had studied botany in Europe, but neither published, wrote, described any species, assembled any collection, or performed any task by which posterity is able to judge the quality of any botanical labour he undertook. Walker's stay in Parramatta was not long. He left in 1847 to become the rector of St. Luke's at Liverpool. It was from the Rev. Walker, Woolls said that he had "first imbibed a taste for Australian botany". As a consequence, Woolls would earn for himself a place among the distinguished Australian botanists of the 19th century.
The interior was completed in 1824. Various additions and modifications were made to the church over the years. The chancel was added in 1857, and the
porch
A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...
on the north side, formerly supported by four timber
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s, was enclosed in 1860. The vestries were added in the 1890s. A gallery was added at an unknown date, but was later removed.
Greenway's original portico on the north side was replaced by a brick porch in the 1870s but this, in turn, was replaced by a replica of the original portico in 1923.
An oversight was noticed during the
Moore College
Moore Theological College, otherwise known simply as Moore College, is the theological training seminary of the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The president of the Moore Theological College Council is ''ex officio'' t ...
1956 centenary when it was seen that the church had not been consecrated in 1819.
The church was subject to a major restoration between 1975 and 1978.
Description
St Luke's Anglican Church is a Georgian brick church with tower,
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
and additional chancel and vestries, set in open grounds in the centre of Liverpool.
The clock in the tower is rare in Australia, being one of three
Thwaites & Reed
Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks datin ...
(UK) clocks in Australia, sent (gifted) by King
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
(one in Parramatta at the
Parramatta Female Factory
The Parramatta Female Factory, is a National Heritage Listed place and has three original sandstone buildings and the sandstone gaol walls. The Parramatta Female Factory was designed by convict architect Francis Greenway in 1818 and the only fem ...
one in Hobart).
[Brown, 2002]
The grounds contain some recent paving, but is otherwise mainly open and grassed, with mature lemon scented gums (''
Corymbia citriodora
''Corymbia citriodora'', commonly known as lemon-scented gum and other common names, is a species of tall tree that is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It has smooth white to pink bark, narrow lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds ...
''), stringybarks (''
Eucalyptus crebra
''Eucalyptus crebra'', commonly known as the narrow-leaved ironbark, narrow-leaved red ironbark or simply ironbark, and as muggago in the indigenous Dharawal language, is a species of small to medium-sized tree endemic to eastern Australia. It ha ...
''), bloodwoods (''
Corymbia
''Corymbia'', commonly known as bloodwoods, is a genus of about one hundred species of tree that, along with ''Eucalyptus'', '' Angophora'' and several smaller groups, are referred to as eucalypts. Until 1990, corymbias were included in the gen ...
sp.''), and a kurrajong (''
Brachychiton populneum
''Brachychiton populneus'', commonly known as the kurrajong, is a small to medium-sized tree found naturally in Australia in a diversity of habitats from wetter coastal districts to semi-arid interiors of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland ...
'').
The church was reported to be in good condition as of 8 April 1998.
Heritage listing
![Liverpool St Lukes 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Liverpool_St_Lukes_1.JPG)
St Luke's Anglican Church is evidence of Governor Macquarie's initiatives in opening up settlement in New South Wales. It is one of the three oldest surviving Anglican churches in Australia, and a fine example of Francis Greenway's public architecture in New South Wales. It is widely regarded with St James' Church, Sydney and St Matthew's Anglican Church, Windsor as a "foundation" colonial church.
The clock in the tower is a
Thwaites & Reed
Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks datin ...
clock, one of five sent as a gift from
King George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
(the others being in the
Parramatta Female Factory
The Parramatta Female Factory, is a National Heritage Listed place and has three original sandstone buildings and the sandstone gaol walls. The Parramatta Female Factory was designed by convict architect Francis Greenway in 1818 and the only fem ...
, St. John's Parramatta, St. Matthew's Windsor and in
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
).
St Luke's Anglican Church Group, as part of Macquarie's original survey of Liverpool, demonstrates the history of the early settlement of the city and is a physical link to the character of the early township. It also demonstrates the history of the Anglican Church from the early establishment of the Colony from which period it has been a centre for local worship. The group is associated with many key Colonial figures, including the Architect Francis Greenway and is representative of his early colonial architectural style. Located within the heart of Liverpool the group is a historic, aesthetically pleasing landmark in an otherwise modernised city centre. It is one of only three surviving early Anglican churches in the country. There is the potential to gain more information on the site from further architectural, archaeological and
documentary research
Documentary research is the use of outside sources, documents, to support the viewpoint or argument of an academic work. The process of documentary research
Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of ...
.
St Luke's Anglican Church was listed on the
New South Wales State Heritage Register
The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...
on 2 April 1999.
See also
*
Australian non-residential architectural styles
Australian non-residential architectural styles are a set of Australian architectural styles that apply to buildings used for purposes other than residence and have been around only since the first colonial government buildings of early European ...
*
List of Anglican churches in the Diocese of Sydney
This is a list of churches in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. This includes physical church buildings even if they do not currently have congregations meeting. If a congregation meets in a shared space such as a school hall, it should only b ...
References
Bibliography
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Attribution
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luke's
Churches listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register
Liverpool, New South Wales
Anglican church buildings in Sydney
Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register
1820 establishments in Australia
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
Old Colonial Georgian architecture in Australia