Design
The cathedral was designed in the Gothic revival style by John Loughborough Pearson, one of England's leading church architects of the late 19th century and bears similarities to Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, also designed by Pearson, although the architecture of St John's is more decidedly French Gothic in inspiration. The external walls are of randomly arranged brown, pink and mauve porphyry stone from the O’Connelltown Quarry in suburban Brisbane, while the interior is primarily dressed sandstone (Helidon freestone) from Helidon near Toowoomba. The granite and basalt used in the foundations and at the base of the columns came from Harcourt and Footscray in Victoria and the sandstone for the window dressings, doorways and arcading came from Pyrmont, New South Wales.
The initial architectural impact is achieved via its lofty ceilings, tall, delicately proportioned columns and low level lighting. The architects achieve a layering effect through the masking of external walls via colonnades (a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature which is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above the columns) often free-standing. The interior (by Frank Loughborough Pearson) reflects liturgical arrangements favoured by the Oxford movement from the 1840s. The design of the central nave toward the east end was reworked by Frank Pearson (1898–1904). He lengthened the nave and exchanged the lancet windows in the north transept for a wheel window, simplified the details of the east end and omitted much of the cathedral’s internal decoration to meet financial constraints. The north and south aisles, representing a bird’s folded wings, are separated from the nave, or body, by Pearson’s slender piers. The nave terminates at the crossing. The central tower rests on four large piers and is directly above. The north and south transepts (the transverse part of a cruciform church, crossing the nave at right angles) representing outstretched arms are to the left and right and the most sacred part of the cathedral is ahead.
In many respects, the architecture of St John’s resembles the great Cistercian abbey churches of 12th and 13th century Europe. The Cistercian monks believed that church architecture should be simple and utilitarian and also preferably made of stone, relying for its effects upon simple elegance of design, noble proportions and the natural qualities of the materials. This can be seen in St John’s in the atmosphere of the building created by the mass of stone pillars, ceilings and arches, the quality of the sandstone and the basic simplicity of the design and, apart from the west front, minimal ornamentation.
According to Cleary, Pearson’s elevated choir symbolically marks the passage from the secular nave into the higher and more holy choir. Here the clergy are also accommodated in their “elaborately carved” stalls and the archbishop’s throne cathedra (symbolising his authority and pastoral responsibilities) – designed by Pearson resides. Beyond the choir is the presbytery and then the high altar and its surrounding sanctuary. The high altar is a free standing structure with a great Byzantine style stone baldachino (a permanent ornamental canopy, as above a freestanding altar or throne), rather than a reredos, (a screen or a decorated part of the wall behind an altar in a church) supported on columns rising high above it. Beneath the high altar lie the remains of Bishop Webber.
However, as yet the baldachino has not been constructed. In front of the altar in the sanctuary floor are two pieces of mosaic from the Holy Land, brought back after being uncovered during the First World War by the Australian Light Horse Regiment. One of these is part of the floor of a 6th century synagogue at Jericho. The other is a fragment from the floor of a 6th century Christian church at Gaza and is part of a larger mosaic now housed in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Beyond the high altar the cathedral ends in a semicircular apse and ambulatory (processional aisle), a link to the architecture's French-Norman past.
Many features beyond the crossing including the altar, cross, candle sticks, pulpit, canopy, clergy stalls, pendant lights and litany desk were designed by Frank Pearson. He also designed the carved organ case and the wheel window in the north transept.
Many Brisbane architects were commissioned to design liturgical furniture for the cathedral’s three chapels, the Lady Chapel, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit and the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament.
The initial design called for a galvanised iron roof; this was changed to terracotta roof tiles in 1907. The resolution of unfinished design elements continues to pose challenges.
Read more about this topic: St John's Cathedral (Brisbane)
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