St James Old Cathedral

The church originally stood near the corner of Collins Street and William Street in what was the centre of the town in the 1840s, at what is now the western end of the business district. There is still a small street called St James Lane,[2] which ran adjacent to the church's school on the next block to the north. In May 1913 leaks and cracks led to an inspection by architect Thomas Watts which determined that the structure was unsafe and had to be closed.[3] With rising land values and a declining congregation, the possibility of re-erecting rather than demolishing was proposed,[4] and a site not very far away on the corner of King Street and Batman Street opposite the Flagstaff Gardens was chosen. The move was overseen by John Stevens Gawler, a Melbourne architect who was largely responsible for establishing the School of Architecture at the University of Melbourne, and it was reopened on Sunday April 19, 1914.[5] Essentially only the exterior stonework and the timber work was saved,[6] and the church was not rebuilt precisely the same, with; there were also a number of minor internal changes, reorientation from east west to north south, and changes to the tower[7] - the third stage of the tower was made square to match the base rather than octagonal to match to the top section, both square stages have two arches instead of three, and are taller, and the dome is flatter, altogether creating a taller square tower, rather than the previous narrow octagonal one. Despite the relocation and reconstruction, the church is listed as "the earliest surviving church in Victoria, and one of Melbourne's earliest surviving buildings".[1]