St John's Anglican Church also known as St John the Evangelist Church, is the historic Anglican parish church of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

, Western Australia. The first Georgian-style church close to the present site was opened in 1843, and then replaced with a larger Gothic building nearby in 1882. The older building was demolished, which allowed

Fremantle Town Hall Fremantle Town Hall is a town hall located in the portside city of Fremantle, Western Australia, and situated on the corner of High, William and Adelaide Streets. The official opening, on 22 June 1887, coincided with the celebration of Queen Vic ...

to be built and for the

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

to be extended, giving Walyalup Koort its current shape. The church is part of the Anglican Diocese of Perth, and currently forms a parish jointly with St. Peter's in

Palmyra Palmyra ( ; Palmyrene dialect, Palmyrene: (), romanized: ''Tadmor''; ) is an ancient city in central Syria. It is located in the eastern part of the Levant, and archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first menti ...

The 1843 church

The present Church of St John is the second of that name in Fremantle. The first was founded after petitions were made in 1839 to the newly arrived Governor of Western Australia,

John Hutt John Hutt (24 July 1795 – 9 April 1880) was Governor of Western Australia from 1839 to 1846. Life Born in London on 24 July 1795, John Hutt was the fourth of 13 children of Richard Hutt of Appley Towers, Ryde, Isle of Wight. He was educate ...

, to create an Anglican church on Walyalup Koort known formerly as ''King's Square''. It stood at the centre of the square at the end of the

. The expense of building the church was underwritten by Daniel Scott, who was an enterprising harbour master and supporter of the Church of England.P. J. Coles, 'Scott, Daniel (1800–1865)', ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-daniel-2638/text3661. Retrieved 22 August 2013. The church was opened on 4 August 1843. This church stood for decades but was demolished when the new church was available. The outline of this building is still shown in the pavement and two stained glass windows in the nave of the present church are said to have been moved from this building to the new church. In 1855 a rectory was built.

The 1882 church

In 1876, the church applied to the

Fremantle City Council The City of Fremantle is a local government area in the south of Perth, Western Australia. The City covers an area of , and lies about southwest of the Perth central business district. History The City of Fremantle is named after Charles ...

for an additional strip of land by the existing church wall, to be given to the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, for a new church. In this application, all of Kings Square was said to have been legally given to the Church of England, though in later years this assertion was thought to be debatable. This application was refused, as the strip was used for storing and preparing stone and some councillors believed the church already had enough land. A year later, the church made a second proposal, offering the council the south-western corner of the square, and a

right of way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

for the extension of High Street through the square, in return for the strip of land and £500, equivalent to in . The council accepted, subject to minor modification. This new St John's church was completed in 1882 at a cost of £7,500, equivalent to in . The cost was defrayed by the demolition of the old church, which allowed the street to continue through what had been Kings Square. Nearly £2,000 was raised by selling the right of way through the land, for the space to build

, and by selling off blocks of land. The new church was designed by William Smith in London and built by Joshua James Harwood who was an architect and Chief Inspector of works. James was also a church warden at St George's Cathedral in Perth. His company, Harwood and Son, used limestone from a quarry in Cantonment Street. The foundation stone was laid by the second Bishop of Perth, Henry Parry, in 1878. Harwood had the church ready to be consecrated in July 1882. Six years later an organ was installed. The bell turret was a later addition to the building in about 1906. Just before the First World War the church needed its first repairs because the

she-oak The Casuarinaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Fagales, consisting of four genera and 91 species of trees and shrubs native to eastern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific Is ...

shingle roof had exceeded its natural life span. A decision was made to replace it with a better material, Welsh slate. These slates were replaced by shingles made from

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

in 1975. A major benefit to the church and the public was negotiated in 1923 when in return for making the grounds publicly available the council agreed to maintain them. The church was placed on the State Heritage Register in 1997.

Features

The east end has a

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

window of three panes. They were manufactured by Franz Mayer & Co. in Munich. The windows are entitled "The Appearance in the Upper Room", "Stilling the Tempest", and "Christ and the Magdalen". The first was installed in memory of the head of

Fremantle Prison Fremantle Prison, sometimes referred to as Fremantle Gaol or Fremantle Jail, is a former Australian prison and World Heritage Site in Fremantle, Western Australia. The site includes the prison cellblocks, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, ...

Henry Maxwell Lefroy Henry Maxwell Lefroy (August 1818 – 18 July 1879) was a prominent explorer of the Mid West and Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. He was the son of Rev. John Henry George Lefroy, the rector of Compton and Ashe, who died when ...

, and the other two were for Thomas Brown and Daniel Scott. The seven lancet stained glass windows on the west wall each show one of the

works of mercy Works of mercy (sometimes known as acts of mercy) are practices considered meritorious in Christian ethics. The practice is popular in the Catholic Church as an act of both penance and charity. In addition, the Methodist church teaches that th ...

. The windows were imported from London and were created by A. L. Moore. The organ is the first one that was built in Western Australia. It was made by Robert Cecil Clifton in 1884 and it was the first of five that he built in Western Australia. The organ was installed in 1884 at a cost of £600, an organ often played by Percy Coward (1867–1933), a renowned organist of his day,West Australian (Perth, WA), Saturday 6 January 1934 a former chorister of Westminster Abbey and St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle, and uncle of playwright Noel Coward.

Today

the church is in daily use.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Saint, Anglican Church, Fremantle

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