1 September 2026
The Church Street Bridge is mighty fine – I’ve always like the very monumental lamp post pylons, as well as the multiple arches seen from below.
It was completed in 1924, and was quite a big deal – the only proper traffic bridge upstream from Princes Bridge, they made an effort to make it beautifull. It won a competition in 1920, and the design of the pylons was by Harold Desbrowe Annear, who was then doing nice houses in Sth Yarra and Toorak in incentive varieties of classical.
And here firstly made it all processional, placing the pylons next to the roadway, you can line them up, sort of. Then he had fun – each one a pair of columns with a little gap between, then four lamps thrusting out, topped by a narrow slope sided pinnacles decorated with wreaths, then tiny curled cornices, and a knob. Down on the piers at water level there’s more curls, called ‘cutwaters’ apparently, something like the prow of a classical ship. There’s very elaborate panels on the bridge piers, you can get up close to the one depicting Victoria, but so can the taggers.
The arches are also great, presumably designed by the engineers – possibly J.M. Ashworth, A.lL. Galbraith, Thomas Ramsden Ashworth and John Albert Laing all had a hand coming up with the design of high reinforced conc arches, with multiple little ones holding up the roadway.
The span over the freeway was altered in the 1990s, I think raised a bit or maybe the ends were, anyway it’s in steel now. Pic 12 is the previous teeny weeny 19C bridge, last 2 pics soon after completion.
