Randwick Presbyterian Church

Pre-1780s the local Aboriginal people in the area used the site for fishing and cultural activities; rock engravings, grinding grooves and middens remain in evidence. In 1789 Governor Arthur Phillip referred to "a long bay", which became known as Long Bay. Aboriginal people are believed to have inhabited the Sydney region for at least 20,000 years.[2] The population of Aboriginal people between Palm Beach and Botany Bay in 1788 has been estimated to have been 1,500. Those living south of Port Jackson to Botany Bay were the Cadigal people who spoke Dharug,[3] while the local clan name of Maroubra people was "Muru-ora-dial".[4] By the mid-19th century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers.[3][1]

One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received 12 acres bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads. In 1839 William Newcombe acquired the land north-west of the present town hall in Avoca Street.[1]

Randwick takes its name from the town of Randwick, Gloucestershire, England. The name was suggested by Simeon Pearce (1821–86) and his brother James. Simeon was born in the English Randwick and the brothers were responsible for the early development of both Randwick and its neighbour, Coogee. Simeon had come to the colony in 1841as a 21-year-old surveyor. He built his Blenheim House on the 4 acres he bought from Marsh, and called his property "Randwick". The brothers bought and sold land profitably in the area and elsewhere. Simeon campaigned for construction of a road from the city to Coogee (achieved in 1853) and promoted the incorporation of the suburb. Pearce sought construction of a church modelled on the church of St. John in his birthplace. In 1857 the first St Jude's stood on the site of the present post office, at the corner of the present Alison Road and Avoca Street.[1][5]^: 217–8

Randwick was slow to progress. The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-bus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt. Wind blew sand over the track, and the bus sometimes became bogged, so that passengers had to get out and push it free. From its early days, Randwick had a divided society. The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area. But the market gardens, orchards and piggeries that continued alongside the large estates were the lot of the working class. Even on the later estates that became racing empires, many jockeys and stablehands lived in huts or even under canvas. An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St. Paul's Street and Perouse Road. Here families lived in makeshift houses, taking on the most menial tasks in their struggle to survive.[1]

In 1858 when the NSW Government passed the Municipalities Act, enabling formation of municipal districts empowered to collect rates and borrow money to improve their suburb, Randwick was the first suburb to apply for the status of a municipality. It was approved in February 1859, and its first Council was elected in March 1859.[1]

Randwick had been the venue for sporting events, as well as duels and illegal sports, from the early days in the colony's history. Its first racecourse, the Sandy Racecourse or Old Sand Track, had been a hazardous track over hills and gullies since 1860. When a move was made in 1863 by John Tait, to establish Randwick Racecourse, Simeon Pearce was furious, especially when he heard that Tait also intended to move into Byron Lodge. Tait's venture prospered, however, and he became the first person in Australia to organise racing as a commercial sport. The racecourse made a big difference to the progress of Randwick. The horse-bus gave way to trams that linked the suburb to Sydney and civilisation. Randwick soon became a prosperous and lively place, and it still retains a busy residential, professional and commercial life.[1]

Today, some of the houses have been replaced by home units. Many European migrants have made their homes in the area, along with students and workers at the nearby University of NSW and the Prince of Wales Hospital.[1][5]^: 218–9

The founder and promoter of the village of Randwick was Simeon Pearce who envisaged the area as a "New Brighton" by the sea but also as a place that had many of the traditional English village qualities of his birthplace of Randwick in Gloucestershire. As a Commissioner of Church and School lands he was well placed to have areas of land set aside for church and school use, and in 1854 a large area of land was granted on the east side of Alison Park for Church of England use then in 1857 on the west side for the Presbyterian Church. Between the church lands, Simeon proposed a general cemetery but because of residents objections this became a cricket ground (later renamed to Alison Park).[1]

Up until the 1880s Sydney's Presbyterians had worshipped in Presbyterian churches located in Sydney City. However, in the 1880s this trend changed with a preliminary meeting of the Randwick Congregation in the Randwick Town Hall on 17 November 1884; the first Presbyterian service in Waverley was held on 17 January 1885; and in Woollahra on 12 February 1888.[1]

An interim session was appointed by the Presbytery to assist the Randwick parishioners in establishing a church there and the Moderator Rev. Dr Gilchrist conducted the first session at the Town Hall on 4 August 1885. As a result, a committee of management was set up acting on the Church Code and considered a number of potential Ministers. The Rev Dr Will Scott Frackelton who arrived in Sydney from the United Kingdom in 1885, was appointed as the first Randwick Minister. He was inducted on 23 November at the Randwick Town Hall.[1]

The new Minister, supported by the congregation, was convinced that a new church was required and initially the land granted for that purpose in 1857 was put aside in favour of private land in Avoca Street, however, the original grant was eventually taken up with part of the northern allotments being sold as unnecessary and the project for the new church was put in hand.[1]

In 1886 the recently arrived English architect, John Sulman, made an offer to the new Randwick Presbyterian Congregation to draw up plans for a church to house the congregation. Sulman had excellent architectural credentials and came from an established and respected architectural practice in England which had designed at least 66 churches in England, many of them combining church schools, for non conformist churches including Presbyterian and Congregational denominations.[1] It is noted that Sulman and his family travelled to Australia on the Orient Line ship RMS Austral in 1885, and it is likely that on this voyage he made the acquaintance of the first resident Minister of the Randwick congregation, the Rev. Will Scott Frackelton.[1]

The initial design submitted by Sulman was subsequently published in the report of the Presbyterian Church Annual Meeting of 1886. While it is similar in design to the extant church this initial design was much larger in scale. Sulman subsequently submitted a revised design on 8 October 1888, with his professional practice partner Joseph Porter Power. A short period later a new Building Committee met and accepted Sulman and Power's design on condition that: it was built for A£4,000; that the church width be reduced to by six feet; and that it be built of brick with stone dressings instead of stucco on the front facade.[1]

The church design as accepted by the Randwick Presbyterian Church was essentially a neo-classic design of Baroque derivation having its entrance facade dominated by two tall towers. A perspective of this design published in a number of newspapers is all that is known to remain of the architect's drawings. While the towers displayed in this plan were not undertaken (due to economic considerations) the extant church appears to be consistent with this plan.[1]

A newspaper article of the period stated that "its internal arrangement which is at once novel and excellent, and will be found to be, so far as its acoustic properties are concerned, one of the best buildings of its class in the colony, whilst the congregation will have from every part an uninterrupted view of the preacher". It was also said that seating was provided on the ground floor for 441 and in the gallery for 226, allowing for the accommodation of 667 parishioners.[1]

Randwick Presbyterian Church is attributed to John Sulman who designed churches in a number of styles including English Gothic (Springwood); Romanesque (Manly and Woollahra), and was well known for preparing a large number of alternative styles for banks. It is speculated, however, that the final design may be due in part to the influence of the Minister Will Frackleton, who had travelled, preached and studied extensively in the United States of America. Its derivation is also most likely based on the standard Scottish T-Plan Church with galleries, a famous Sydney example being James Barnet's c. 1854 Chalmers Presbyterian Church in Surry Hills. The interior with its gallery is also similar to St Andrew's Presbyterian Church at Evandale and the Pitt Street Congregational Church in Sydney. It has been noted that the first design submitted by Sulman in 1886 bears a striking resemblance to the c. 1814 First Scots Presbyterian Church of Charleston, South Carolina, with its large central portico, twin Baroque towers and a transverse classroom wing at the rear. It is noted that Sulman also travelled widely in Britain and Europe and may have been aware of a similar church built in Glasgow in 1870, being the Govan United Presbyterian Church designed by James Thomson.[1]

It is considered that although the Sulman and Power design of the church was not of the usual Gothic revival style favoured at the time, it is related to a school of church architectural design based on neoclassic, particularly Greek Revival and Georgian designs that can be traced back to the churches of the convict architect Francis Greenway. It was of a style not uncommon in Sydney up to that time although the proposed twin towers (not built) were a departure in the design for a suburban parish church.[1]

John Sulman was born on 29 August 1849 at Greenwich, Kent, England, third son of John Sulman, jeweller, and his wife Martha, née Quinton. He was educated at Greenwich Proprietary School and in 1863 passed the Oxford junior examination. After his family moved to Croydon next year, he was articled to Thomas Allom, a London architect; he learned the use of oils and water-colour, and executed perspective drawings for Sir George Gilbert Scott.[1]

Following illness, Sulman resumed work in London in 1868. While articled to H. R. Newton, he attended classes at the Architectural Association and at the Royal Academy of Arts, winning the Pugin travelling scholarship in 1871. An associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1872 (fellow, 1883), Sulman designed the Congregational Church at Caterham, Surrey: the first wedding there was his own, to Sarah Clark Redgate on 15 April 1875. They moved to Bromley, Kent. He lectured on applied art and formed the Nineteenth Century Art Society.[1]

In Italy in 1882 he contracted typhoid at Naples; two years later Sarah showed signs of tuberculosis. Although president-elect of the Architectural Association, Sulman sold his practice (which had produced over seventy churches and other buildings) and left with his wife and son for Australia, due to his wife's health. Reaching Sydney on 13 August 1885, he paid £3,000 in 1886 next to enter a partnership with C. H. E. Blackmann in Sydney. Some months later Blackmann fled the country with a Sydney barmaid, leaving Sulman liable for his debts. From 1889 to 1908 Sulman practised with Joseph Porter Power. Sulman's commissions included The Armidale School (1889), Women's College, University of Sydney (1890–94), and Presbyterian churches at Woollahra (1889), Manly (1889–92) and Randwick (1890) and the Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital at Concord, designed in Federation free classical style.[1]

Always ready to discuss art and architecture, Sulman founded the Palladian Club in 1887 and became an honorary corresponding secretary of the R.I.B.A. He was asked by Aston Webb to "clean up" the Institute of Architects of New South Wales: Sulman had joined the institute in 1887 and been elected vice-president, but John Horbury Hunt foiled his attempt to become president; Sulman resigned in 1892 and did not rejoin until 1912 when he was again vice-president. In 1887-1912 he also lectured part-time in architecture in the faculty of engineering at the University of Sydney; he visited Britain and the United States of America in 1892 to report on architectural schools.[1]

In 1890 A. B. Smith, minister for public works, had convened a "secret committee" of six architects (including Hunt, W. L. Vernon and Sulman) to investigate complaints that the colonial architect James Barnet had a monopoly on the design of large, and therefore lucrative, public buildings. They recommended that such work be open to competition. As Barnet was to retire, Smith sought to replace him with Sulman, who declined. In October Sulman formed the Parramatta half-squadron of lancers, but resigned his commission as first lieutenant four years later.[1]

Sulman's first wife Sarah died in 1888. At St Luke's Anglican Church, Burwood, on 27 April 1893, he married Annie Elizabeth Masefield, the childhood companion of (Dame) Eadith Walker. Annie took up photography and published collections of her studies of Australian wildflowers. Sulman again became seriously ill in 1896 and took his family to Europe. Returning in 1897, he made the cottage he had begun for his parents at Turramurra into a rambling family house, "Ingleholme".[1]

A visit to Paris in 1873 had impressed on Sulman the need for town planning. In 1890 his paper, "The laying-out of towns", delivered to the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, advocated the 'spider's web' plan in preference to the grid; he used the motto 'convenience, utility and beauty'; his paper marked the beginning of town planning in Australia as a formal discipline.[1]

In 1907 the Daily Telegraph published his series of articles on the need for a plan for Sydney; on eleven occasions he gave evidence before the royal commission for the improvement of the city of Sydney and its suburbs (1908–09). Many of his proposals are evident in Sydney today: the extension of Martin Place, the location of Circular Quay railway station and the widening of Elizabeth, Oxford and William streets (with a tunnel under King's Cross). He considered Australia's architectural heritage insignificant and at various times recommended the demolition of Hyde Park Barracks, St James' Church, Darlinghurst Gaol, Victoria Barracks and Sydney Hospital.[1]

After retiring from practice in 1908, Sulman held influential positions as director of the Daily Telegraph Newspaper Co. Ltd from 1902 (chairman 1922-25), president of the Town Planning Association of New South Wales (1913–25) and chairman of the Town Planning Advisory Board to the Department of Local Government (1918). At the University of Sydney, he endowed a lectureship in aeronautics, and gave the Anzac memorial bursary (1922) and £2,500 to encourage the teaching of town planning (1926). He was Vernon memorial lecturer in town planning at the university in 1919–26.[1]

A supporter of Walter Burley Griffin's plan for Canberra, Sulman gave evidence at the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works in 1915. As chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee (1921–24), he nonetheless advocated departures from the Griffin plan wherever he saw fit.[1]

Sulman was a trustee of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales from 1899 and its President from 1919 - ?? In 1930 he established the annual Sir John Sulman award for architectural merit in New South Wales.[1]

Sulman died at North Sydney on 18 August 1934 and was cremated with Presbyterian forms. His second wife and his surviving children endowed the Sir John Sulman prize for genre painting or mural decoration. His estate was sworn for probate at £171,615.[1]

Versatile, gifted and energetic, Sulman was forceful and decisive in action and in speech. By turns polished and aggressive, he was seldom deflected from any task. Driven by ambition and a virile ego, he was politically adroit, able to cultivate useful acquaintances to become the central figure of any organization with which he was connected. His taste was essentially conservative (he considered much modern art to be 'awful rubbish'), but his interests ranged from painting to town planning: "the former seeks art in small framed spaces, the latter in wide, prettily and properly-planned places".[1][6]

The building contract was awarded to the prominent Sydney builder and resident of Randwick, Mr George Gale, who had been responsible for building many projects including works for the noted Melbourne architect, William Pitt, who designed the Princess Theatre and the Rialto Buildings amongst many during Melbourne's building boom.[1]

The foundation stone for the church was laid by the Hon. Henry Clarke MP, on 9 March 1889, and the official opening took place on 16 March 1890. Sulman was in the congregation for the service delivered by the Rev. Dr Frackleton and the address given by Rev. Dr Steel.[1]

It was reported that the interior fittings and furniture were provided by Messrs Eaton Brothers and that the total cost of the project was A£5,790. This amount exceeded the available funds available such that the church had to borrow £2,000 to cover the debts.[1]

The extant pipe organ was installed in 1903 as a gift of Mrs Jane Fischer in memory of her son Albert Fischer who drowned at Inverell. It replaced the American organ initially purchased for the church. The organ was assembled by W. G. Rendall of Bondi Junction and is thought to contain part of an instrument built by Alfred Monk, of London, in 1854.[1]

The Ministers to the Parish resided in rental accommodation until the Manse was completed in 1900. The Federation style manse was designed by a member of the congregation A. A. Lewis and built under the direction of W. Webster. The building cost £1,270. The manse was modified by architects Clark, Gazzard and Partners in 1967 to create two separate residences in order to accommodate both the Minister and the Pastor.[1]

The single-storey church Sunday School which is connected to the church was designed by Mr A. A. Lewis and completed in 1903. It connects with the rear elevation of the church and is aligned with the wall of the church on the Abbey Street boundary. In 1934, the 50-year jubilee of the congregation in Randwick, a second floor for the school hall was proposed, and this was completed in February 1936 by the builders, Elvey and Company. The cost these alterations amounted to 1,809 Pounds.[1]

A nondenominational Christian independent boys' school opened its doors on 21 July 1914, with 27 students in the single-storey c. 1903 school hall that adjoins the rear of the church. The school's founder and first Headmaster, Mr William Nimmo, chose the Randwick area owing to the large number of boys travelling into the city of Sydney for their education. William Nimmo remained Headmaster until retired in 1965. A second floor was added to the school hall in 1936.[1]

The Rev Clements was instrumental in opening the doors of the church to a wider congregation, hence, in March 1979, the first regular service was held for the Indonesian community. Pastor David Silas was the first preacher in the Indonesian Language Section. The Church is known as the Indonesian Presbyterian Church - Randwick.[1]

The following individuals have served as ministers of the Randwick Presbyterian Church, or equivalent titles:[1]

1. Will Scott Frackleton 1885–1896
2. William Gibson Maconochie 1896–1898
3. Charles Henry Talbot 1898–1922
4. William James Grant 1922–1949
5. C. J. Vernon McKeown 1949–1967
6. Douglas Graham Ritchie 1968–1970
7. Stuart John Clements 1971–1985
8. John Lambertus Bracht 1987-1991
9. Ronald Sydney Keith 1992-1996
10. Conrad A D Hor-Kwong 1998-1999
11. Grant Spurgeon Thorp 2000-2011
12. Ian Neil Stenhouse 2013–2019

As at 19 October 2006, the building is in sound condition, though the stonework on the southern facade has generally weathered with localised erosion and friable stone.[1] The church facade and interior fabric demonstrates a high degree of integrity.[1]

• March 1890 - Randwick Presbyterian Church opened.
• 1900 - Detached Manse designed by of A. A. Lewis, completed under the direction of W. Webster.
• 1903 - Pipe organ fitted by W. G. Rendall and single-storey Sunday School Hall designed by A. A. Lewis completed.
• 1911 - Church records indicate that the pipe organ was reconstructed and that repairs were carried out to the church, manse and fence.
• 1914 - Coogee Boys' Preparatory School opened in the single-storey church hall.
• 1936 - First-floor addition to School Hall designed by (?) was completed by the builders Elvey & Co.
• 1962 - Toilet building completed to the rear of the church.
• 1967 - A kitchen an bathroom were added to the Manse in 1967 so that the building could be divided into two residences, in order to accommodate both the Minister and the Pastor. In addition, the front porch was partly screened. These works were performed to the designs of architects Clark, Gazzard and Partners.
• 1983 - External staircases fitted to Church, Manse and School to comply with fire regulations. These works were designed by Architects Finn & McKinley Pty Ltd.[1]

The original fence around the church was a timber picket fence as evidenced by a number of early photographs. It is not known when the fence was removed or when the present main entrance steps with flanking brick garden beds were built.[1] As built it was reported that the main church roof was of slate but this has subsequently been replaced by a metal roof. In the years after World War II, the present stained glass windows were installed, possibly replacing plain glass windows.[1]

• Apperley, R.; Irving, R.; Reynolds, P. (1994). Identifying Australian Architecture - Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present.
• Apperly, Richard E; Reynolds, Peter (1990). 'Sulman, Sir John (1849–1934)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 12.
• Clements, H. (Ed) (1894). A Centenary Chronicle 1884–1984.
• Donnellan, Betty (1995). Randwick Presbyterian Church.
• Freeland, J. M. (1968). Archiecture in Australia - A History.
• Pollon, F.; Healy, G., eds. (1988). Randwick entry, in 'The Book of Sydney Suburbs'.
• Sheedy, David (2005). Conservation Management Plan for the Randwick Presbyterian Church.

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Randwick Presbyterian Church, entry number 01777 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 2 June 2018.