Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 1 February 1938, page 8


LETTERS

ST. ANDREW'S CATHEDRAL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD.

Sir, - It is gratifying to find such strong rallying of opinion against the proposed de-sign for the extension of St. Andrew's Cathe-

dral

There are faults in all three placed designs, but whilst the second and third fall short in part only, the first fails obviously in de-sign, and in choice of material, and also lacks the "feeling" appropriate to ecclesi-astic architecture The tower, an overgrown appendage, is so out of proportion as to sug-gest a mania for domination - at any price the choice of brick, as the material to be used, shows want of local knowledge, and a serious omission from preliminary instruc-tions. Could anything be more incongruous than a brick cathedral in Sydney?

It Is doubtful if any country In the world has a building stone more perfectly suited for church building than our Sydney sand-stone, even for the most delicate and intri-cate tracery etc, in Gothic architectureand there are numerous examples in New South Wales to demonstrate Its value for the purpose. To wilfully set out to use brick for the extension of a Gothic cathedral of stone in Sydney is as amazing as the report that such would produce a monument to be proud of. We do not want a monument -

give us a cathedral

Bowral, Jan. 29.

I am, etc.,

PENDRILL C.. BLACKET.