154-160 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (Fitzroy Wesleyan Methodist Church & Chapel (Mission Hall))

There are two buildings covered by this post – the Church and then below this the older Chapel.

The Wesleyan Methodist Church

The Fitzroy Wesleyan Methodist Church was built in October 1860. In 1861, Fitzroy’s population was 12% Wesleyan Methodist and while this is behind Church of England (43%), Presbyterian (15%) and Roman Catholic (14%), it was a strong population compared to the other suburbs around it – Collingwood (10%), North Melbourne (8%) and Port Melbourne (7%). (Fitzroy, Melbourne’s First Suburb)

The Wesleyan Methodists built their “twin-towered, gothic bluestone church right on the street-line, cheek by jowl with the shops, banks and hotels of Brunswick Street, the main commercial thoroughfare.” The church could seat 1,500 people in its balconied interior. “The Wesleyan parish gathered its congregation from among the shopkeepers of Brunswick Street, including the Bennett family, whose ironmonger’s shop and hay-and-corn store stood on the corner of Brunswick and Moor Streets. Charles Newman, a confectioner, Charles Barrett, hairdresser and herbalist and John Wymond, draper, were also leading Wesleyans. Later in the 1880s, Fred Cato joined the congregation after opening branches of Moran & Cato grocery shops in Brunswick and Smith Streets.” Other people associated with the Church include the Brotchie family (Gore St), TG Atkinson, W Brokenshire, TA Eaton and Nehemiah Wimble (City Clerks employed by the Victorian Government). (Fitzroy, Melbourne’s First Suburb).

By the mid 20th century the congregation had declined.

In “the 1960s, the church’s main function was in anti-poverty activism and social outreach. This area of southern Fitzroy had long been considered a “slum”, and had been extensively catalogued during the 1930s by the influential Methodist social reformer F. Oswald Barnett. This area was therefore a key target for regeneration by the Housing Commission of Victoria, which had been formed partly in response to social activism by figures such as Barnett. In order to build the Atherton Estate which now stands on this site, the HCV demolished the church in 1969. This led the National Trust to increase their efforts to preserve the Mission Hall which stood behind the church, and which was also constructed from bluestone. Despite the campaign to save the hall, it was demolished in the same year; as historian Miles Lewis has described it, “one of Fitzroy’s most interesting buildings disappeared.”” (Lauren Piko, Yarra Libraries PassPort)

The Wesleyan Chapel / Mission Hall

The original Sunday School for the Wesleyan Church was the Wesleyan Chapel and Sunday School and “was built between 1849 and 1854 near the corner of Brunswick and Hanover Streets.” This building was therefore much older than the structures that were built after it, notably the new Sunday School which still stands on King William Street next to the iron All Saints Parish Hall. “After the large Gothic style church was built beside it, in 1861, this chapel was no longer visible from Brunswick Street.” (Fitzroy, Melbourne’s First Suburb)

“The Wesleyan School is the first documented use of bluestone in Fitzroy. Because it is hard to work bluestone is usually only used for foundations. The Wesleyan School was built in 1849 and is now known to have been designed by George Wharton, though previously it was attributed to James Webb. It is believed that the church was to be rendered (as most did not find bluestone to be attractive).” (South Fitzroy Conservation Study 1979, p.11).

The church was demolished in the late 60’s early 70’s for the Housing Commission (South Fitzroy Conservation Study 1979, p.11).

Brian and Renata Howe, recall in the interview conducted by the Fitzroy History Society as part of the Oral History Project in 2015-2017, that “The Fitzroy Methodist Church as a huge church in Brunswick Street, and the congregation were mostly homeless men” and elderly people. It was a small congregation. Brian arrived in Fitzroy in 1969 and the church was demolished just after they arrived. They talk of trying to save it, not so much the church which was ‘a lost cause’ but to save the bluestone building immediately behind the church, being the Mission Hall, shown above”. Even at this time the building was recognised as historically important being one of the oldest buildings in Fitzroy. The community had tried to save it, but Brian and Renata recall that while there “was support”, “there wasn’t a lot of organisation”. This move sparked the beginnings of the Fitzroy Residents’ Association in 1969 of which they were involved.