St. Vincent Street Church

A rare opportunity to enjoy the last surviving intact church by Alexander “Greek” Thomson, built for the United Presbyterian Church on the corner of St. Vincent Street and Pitt Street. With the site sloping steeply from top to bottom, Thomson had the opportunity to stack the worshipping space above a large basement hall: temple and tower rising high above a podium built of cyclopean masonry. The style defies conventional architectural analysis: the exterior is extraordinary, not least for its tall, tapering clock tower, once described as “a long-drawn-out policeman’s helmet with a kind of sugar castor at the top.” The interior is no less dramatic, the richly-coloured galleried space lit by frameless windows and the woodwork a warm, honey-hued pine decorated with Thomson’s trademark mahogany frets. The church was transferred to the city in 1964 and is in need of a new use that celebrates its architectural glory and introduces it to a wider audience. Opening the building as part of Doors Open Day is part of this dialogue. Come and marvel at the architect’s inventiveness and give us your ideas for its future!