Showing posts with label church architecture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church architecture. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Singapore cathedral, the story behind the photo


Last time I was in Singapore I did my own self-guided heritage walking tour around the vicinity of the Raffles Hotel and Chijmes Centre. Not far from there, right near Singapore MRT City Hall station is the beautiful St Andrew's Cathedral.

I took some photos at the time and now I am prompted to find out more about this Anglican cathedral.

There was an old church on this site built by Indian convicts as far back as 1837. However the building was struck by lightning and was pulled down, so the cathedral you see now is the building that replaced it in 1852. The building now on the site now was designed by Colonel Ronald MacPherson in the architectural style of English Gothic revival. It is based on the 13th-century Netley Abbey in England. The four paths that lead to the cathedral form the Cross of St. Andrew.




It’s difficult to get a full distance photo of the cathedral now, as the area is in the midst of city buildings. However you can see old picture of St Andrew's Cathedral, here Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore.

The interior walls are plastered with an unusual building material known as Madras Chunam which is a mixture of shell lime, egg white and sugar, and was used to achieve the glossy white walls.

During the Japanese occupation in 1942, the church served as a casualty clearing station where the war wounded were treated.

I did not take any interior photos, but here on Flickr there is a picture of the Stained glass East window.

Read more about the history of St Andrew’s Cathedral here and next time you are in Singapore take some time to visit.


Sunday, 12 June 2011

An architectural treasure south of Perth














I came across this book recently - "The Fairbridge Chapel : Sir Herbert Baker's labour of love" by David Dolan and Christine Lewis and it reminded me that I was intrigued by this chapel when I saw it for the first time last year on a visit to Fairbridge Farm. The architecture looks so unusual compared to the style of most Australian colonial church architecture (not that I am an expert at all). It certainly has a Cape, as in Cape Town, look about it.

The Fairbridge Chapel is known as the Chapel of the Holy Innocents and was designed by the famous architect Sir Herbert Baker who also designed buildings all over South Africa.

"Baker was a great believer in Kingsley Fairbridge and his work at Fairbridge Farm that when the Child Emigration Society approached him in 1928 about designing a chapel for the Farm School, he was more than happy to oblige. In his autobiography Architecture and Personalities (1994) Baker explained, " I have such admiration for the work of Kingsley Fairbridge, inspired by Rhodes and a Rhodes Scholar, in his farm schools that I gave designs of a chapel for the first Farm School at Pinjarra in Western Australia."

More about Herbert Baker architecture in South Africa here

Baker designed the Union Buildings, the official seat of the South African government in Pretoria, South Africa.

It is well worth a visit to Fairbridge Farm just to see the chapel. It is less than a 60 minute drive south of Perth, near Pinjarra.