Mitcham, VIC - All Saints' Anglican

History and Architecture:

Former Christ Church.

The Church was created in 1888 and a timber church building was erected that year. In 1958 a new church was built on the adjacent site and the 1888 church was subsequently used as the parish hall. All Saints (former Christ Church) Anglican Church, was designed in 1958 by Raymond Berg, a modernist architect who worked with a number of influential architects in the Department of Architecture at the University of Melbourne from 1949 to 1962, and was constructed by Anderson Construction Company. Both church buildings remain on the site.

The 1958 church is an early modern building of simple rectangular form with shallow butterfly roof. Built of rigid steel frame construction, the end walls are of solid red brick and the side walls are clad with grey concrete tiles. Strips of clerestory windows, with deep reveals, line the side walls between exposed steel columns. An ancillary rectangular space to the north-west contains a chapel, vestry and choir room, and another to the south-east contains the original entry porch.

A tall open steel framed tower, supporting a cross, is situated in front of the porch. Internally the nave and sanctuary are one unified space with the steel structure clearly expressed. Additional cylindrical steel columns flank the side aisles, strapped plywood dados line the side walls and the ceiling is lined with timber.

The building retains stained timber furniture, including a pulpit, lectern and two-toned pews, a marble altar and cylindrical acrylic light fittings.