Architecture
St John's College is perhaps the grandest Gothic Revival building in New South Wales and designed by one of England's (and Australia's) foremost ecclesiastical architects of the mid-19th century is unique in Sydney collegiate architecture in its combination of scale quality and construction. A rare realisation of Pugin's ideal Catholic college (and in turn based on Magdalen College, Oxford), it demonstrates the influence of Pugin on the work of William Wardell. It is a splendid example of the period when Pugin's insistence of archaeological accuracy was giving way to the more eclectic influences of the High Victorian generation.
Built entirely in sandstone, the college is 14th century English Gothic in style and substantially Renaissance Baroque in plan, in the manner of Wardell's earlier monasteries and convents. The principal floor or 'piano nobile' level is elevated above the ground floor and is related to a central space (the Ante-chapel) by a series of classical enfilades. The arrangement of the ground floor entry vestibule, and the formal, axially linked Imperial staircase are just as much classical in inspiration. In this respect St John's is unlike the traditional layout of an English university college. The formal parts of the building are very grand, particularly if compared to the almost domestic scale of Blacket's contemporary St Paul's College.
The main facade on the north wing is a typical exercise in Victorian near symmetry with the central tower nearly in the middle. Under the tower is a porte cochere. Continuing south along the visitor's line of entry on the main axis is a visually low, dark vestibule. This enhances the view, through an open arcade and transverse passage, of the more brightly sidelit formal stone staircase. To the north of the stairhall on the principal floor is the central space. To the east of this space is the chapel, viewed through an arcaded screen. To the south is a vista across the stairwell, through an anti-room to the library and on to the students' accommodation. To the west is the Great Hall, although this was not visible from the central space on Wardell's original design. Lastly through a wide opening to the north is the Lady Chapel in the tower.
Read more about this topic: St John's College, University Of Sydney
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