Anglican Parish of Collingwood History 3 1886 St Philip's Church

On 27th March 1863, Sir William Stawell, Chief Justice, chaired a community meeting to form a new church to replace Christ Church Hall. Land was bought for six hundred pounds, plans were approved, and tenders accepted. The foundation stone of St Philip's church was laid by Governor Darling on 29th December 1863. The first service was held on 20th April 1865. Two years later in August 1867, the church was consecrated.

A century later, in October 1968, this (by all accounts beautiful) bluestone church was summarily demolished, to make way for an "interdenominational centre". Pleas by the National Trust to preserve the building for its historical value were ignored and a year of negotiation with Bishop Sambell failed. The demolition of this church was one of Bishop Sambell's lasting legacies to Melbourne before his translation to Perth as fifth Archbishop of that Diocese. During his episcopate in that Diocese a similar fate befell an old church at St Mary's West Perth. That inner-urban parish was luckier, it acquired a new church and centre named after its former Archbishop. St Philip's Collingwood was not so lucky. The "interdenominational centre" was never built. Instead, the land was compulsorily acquired by the then Collingwood City Council after a long legal battle with the Diocese of Melbourne and is now parkland. It is now, only thirty years later, that the mistakes of the past are being undone, and plans for a new worship centre in Collingwood are now well underway.

The photo above, taken from Hoddle Street in 1886, shows the church with the rectory on the left. Click here or on the photo above to see this image enlarged. The larger image is 62K.

The rectory is the oldest building still remaining in the Parish of Collingwood which is still in Anglican hands. It was built in 1866 and the architect was John Flanagan. It is said that the garden was laid out by patients from the Yarra Bend Asylum.