5 September 2014

This church hall in King William Street Fitzroy near the town hall started out as a #prefabricated #castiron store, built c1854, manufactured by EDWIN MAW LIVERPOOL, like it says. The roof trusses are timber, but the side walls are the original corrugated iron.

Update 2024

The rendered brick front is later, various dates suggested, might be 1865, or 1872 when it became a Rechabite Hall, or 1859 when it first appears as the ‘National Hall’ (perhaps created by the National Hotel next door facing Brunswick Street). More confusingly, the Wesleyan’s built the very nice church-like Sunday school next door in 1865, and both buildings were bought by the Catholics, in 1937, turning the ex-hall into a church, and the store/hall into a hall (again). What’s more, the @nationaltrustvic listing says it may have been imported by the Wesleyan’s as a chapel. Last 2 pics Graeme Butler.

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