21 October 2024
A floating priest in the brickwork ! Or Christ ? The 1972 parish hall of St Luke’s Anglican in Dorcas Street, South Melbourne. Doing figures in brick isn’t something I’ve seen in Melbourne before, but have seen it in maybe Eastern Bloc places, but there it would be Lenin. Designed by Bridge Hayden & Handasyde, who created a bluestone foundation stone in the style of the 1924 one, which is surprising. Hayden was born in Poland as Hershman, arriving in Melbourne in 1949, and did a couple of the postwar synagogues, but had a go at a wide range of things. The church itself was built 1857-9, designed by FM White, perfectly nice simple Gothic, but a bit unexciting for me.
Storey of Melbourne 