Sacred Heart St Kilda

July 2026

Sacred Heart, Grey Street St Kilda, 3 mins walk from my flat, is famous for its free lunches and op shop, but has a great and interesting church too! Love the bold brown brick and classical bits, and a huge bell tower looming from down the back.

Its kind of squeezed into its site in the middle of Grey Street, and that’s because the Catholics didn’t get a site allocated in 1842, when the Anglicans got a whole 3 acres, so they had to buy this spot in 1884. It was then surrounded mansions with gardens and grand terraces.

I was surprised to learn that they only built the front 6 bays, just the nave first, then the aisles in 1890. The architects were Reed Henderson & Smart, and they ditched the usual Gothic, going for the Baroque instead, a very Roman choice – this is seen in the way the facade steps up from the sides, and the scrolls on the buttresses (themselves a bit Gothic actually). This was ‘the first church in this style in the colonies’, and by 1900 was the preferred Catholic style, usually in red brick. This church remained relatively short for 30 years, and I don’t know if it was intended all along, but in 1922 the last 2 bays, the sanctuary and the bell tower were all added in matching style, designed by #KempsonandConnelly. The top of the tower is great, a bit Edwardian Baroque, with a big Christ on top.

Twenty years before in 1901 Kempson & Connolly also designed the church hall, in a simple version of the church’s Baroque, and the Presbytery, which goes a bit Queen Anne, with some interesting cast iron.

Repost 2018:

Finally got to see inside #SacredHeartStKilda.

The delightful pale painted #stencildecoration in the church was done in 1901 by G & W Dean, and presumably repeated in the 1922 extension. It was all restored (repainted?) in 1984 by Mulholland. There’s a notable marble altar and neoclassical stained glass too. My pics of the inside are from 2018.