Former Methodist Church, 53 Nicholson Street, Brunswick East

 

 53 Nicholson Street, Brunswick East, November 2011. And view from Miller Street looking south.

Have you ever wondered about the history of the old church building just south of the Miller Street intersection on Nicholson Street, Brunswick East?

Not much has been recorded about this far south-eastern corner of Merri-bek and it’s time to do a little exploring.

The church was often known as North Fitzroy Methodist Church, but in fact it’s on the west side of Nicholson Street, which makes it Brunswick East. Having said that, my latest research shows that many of the congregants lived close by in Fitzroy North and Carlton North.

View using Google maps, 2024. The old church is in the middle. It remains. The Sunday School used to be on the left and the new church on the right. They were demolished in 1990.

Church services were held from 1871 at East Brunswick. A wooden church was built on the corner of Nicholson and Millers Streets towards the end of the 1870s and remained there until 1932, when a brick church took its place. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find an image of the wooden church.

Although there were a number of church buildings on the site, only one remains – the original church, built in the 1880s. It’s a simple brick building, made of handmade bricks, with narrow Romanesque-style windows and cream brick highlights. It would be interesting to know whether John Glew, brickmaker and ardent member of the Brunswick Wesleyan congregation, was involved in their production. He certainly made the first cream bricks in the area.

The simplicity of its design is reflected in its designation in its earliest days as a Wesleyan Mission Hall or Chapel – no frills.

From The Methodist History of Victoria and Tasmania, reprinted from The Spectator special issues, nos1-36. 1898-1902. 

My grandparents' wedding, April 1900.

I was struck by the similarities between these two photos, both taken in 1900. The first is of the Nicholson Street church, complete with its original bell tower. (I wonder what happened to the bell?) The second is of my grandparents’ wedding at the Audley Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Staffordshire, England. That chapel was built in 1876 so it is more or less contemporary with the Nicholson Street church.

The following photos, taken at the turn of the 20^th century, give you an idea of the life of the church at the time. They are all taken from The Methodist History of Victoria and Tasmania, reprinted from The Spectator special issues, nos1-36. 1898-1902. (Available at the State Library of Victoria, for those who are interested.)

East Brunswick Methodist Sunday School teachers. Back (from left): Messrs Carney, J Wild, W Pick, J Cook, W Brentnall. 2^nd row (from left): Mr W Hooker (Secretary), Miss A Hooper, Mr Shepherd (Superintendent), Miss Gray, Mr W Thomas (Assistant Secretary). Front row (from left): Mr B Hills, Miss E Pearce, Miss E Battram [Batterham], Mr Ramsay.

East Brunswick Methodist Trustees. Back row (from left): Mr Slinn, Mr J Wild (Secretary of Trust), Mr W Batterbury. Front row (from left): Messrs W Pick, R Pope, J Cook.

East Brunswick Methodist Choir. Back row (from left); Miss E [Emily] Battram [Batterham], Miss E [Edie] Pick, Mr Harper, Miss E [described elsewhere as Judy] Pearce, Mr W Pick (appears to be the conductor), Mr J Wild, Mrs J Cook. Middle row (from left): Miss M [Mary] Woods, Miss L [Lena] Hills (organist), Mrs Hills, Miss A [Amy] Battram [Batterham]. Front row (from left): Master C Hills, Miss A [Ada] Harper, Miss E [Elsie] Hills, Miss E Carroll, Master J [Jack] Battram [Batterham] The small organ in the photograph is a portable American reed organ. The church’s pipe organ was yet to be installed when this photograph was taken. 

This was a well-attended church, with what we might call now an ‘aspirational’ congregation. In 1907 a brick extension was added, and in 1912 the church closed for 5 weeks while it was renovated ‘to meet the growing requirements of the congregation.’ (Herald, 26 February 1912) It was given a new metal ceiling (probably pressed metal), better windows, electric lighting and the Herald noted that ‘the interior has received artistic treatment from the painters.’  All of this was financed by the congregation.

The East Brunswick Methodist Church organ in its new home, St John the Divine Anglican Church, Toorak Avenue, Croydon. Image courtesy John Maidment.

In 1921, a pipe organ was installed as a memorial to 84 members of the congregation who served in World War 1. It was dedicated by Brigadier General Harold (‘Pompey’) Elliott on 31 July 1921. Interestingly, of the names I have managed to trace, not one was from Brunswick East. Most lived in Fitzroy North and a few in Carlton North.

Thanks to historian John Maidment, I know that the organ, built in 1921 by George Fincham & Sons, was moved to its new location, St John the Divine Anglican Church in Croydon, in 1980-81, some years prior to the repurposing of the church site.

From a pamphlet produced in 1979, BCHG collection.

A more conventional brick and tile church was built to the north of the old church, on the corner of Miller Street, in 1932. The Sunday School, built many years before in 1880, was located to the south of the old church. So there were now three church buildings between Miller Street and Our Lady, Help of Christians.  The furnishings in the new church were made of Australian oak and construction cost £2500 (about $254,000 today), a massive amount to find in those difficult Depression years of the 1930s.

Nicholson Street church, Brunswick circuit. Contains: Foundation stone ceremony invitation of the new church on Saturday, 3 September, 1932 at 3pm; Memorial scroll with names of the officials, members of congregation, Sunday school scholars who availed themselves of the opportunity of signing the scroll; The Brunswick Methodist newsletter, August, September, October 1932); The Spectator Aug 31, 1932; The Argus 3 Sept, 1933. (Uniting Church Archives – Synod of Victoria collection)

A few years later, in 1935, five stained-glass windows were installed by members of the White, Bunston, Olver, McMahon and Corben families. Little is known about the windows, although thanks to glass historian Dr Bronwyn Hughes, I know that the Corben window was ordered from Brooks, Robinson & Co on 2 August 1935 by Mr H F Corben of 88 Rochester Road, Canterbury.  The design was The Good Shepherd, and the same cartoon was used at the Lutheran Church at Tarrington near Hamilton, so this image gives you an idea of what it looked like.

Image courtesy Dr Bronwyn Hughes.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria has in its collection a photograph album belonging to Clarence C U Saunders (1907-1969) (RHSV AL-81). For a time, Saunders lived in Fitzroy North and attended East Brunswick Methodist Church. Notes in the catalogue say that the album was found in a tip or hard rubbish collection in Queensland, which is where Saunders died in 1969. The album covers the period from Easter 1927 to April 1933, so around the time when the new church was built. They give you an idea of some of the church-related activities the young members of the congregation such as Clarence Saunders were able to take part in, despite the terrible times during the 1930s Depression.

In 1990 it was announced that the church site was to be repurposed for housing for the elderly and although the 1932 church and the old Sunday School were demolished, the 1880s church was saved, as you can see in the following newspaper article.

The Sentinel, 17 Dec 1990.

What a long and rich history this south-eastern corner of Merri-bek has had. More from this corner of our world in future posts.

Moreland is now Merri-bek

The City of Moreland has been the City of Merri-bek since September 2022. It's only taken me four years to follow up on my last post. Better late than never, I suppose.

Merri-bek, means ‘rocky country’ in Woi-wurrung language. 

Whether you're from out of town or a local, you might like to explore our local area using the Love Merri-bek trail maps.

But this blog is all about the past, so here is one significant change that has taken place in my home suburb of Brunswick since I last posted.

One of the most exciting changes of recent times is the redevelopment of the old Siteworks precinct in Saxon Street. It's now called Balam Balam Place and it's a vibrant community space that still has some echoes of its past.

Reko Rennie's mural 'Always' is in the foreground of this image from the Merri-bek Council website. The house beside it is the former 'Sherwood', originally home of pottery works owner Alfred Cornwell. Behind that is a new community space, simply called 'South'. 

I took a photo of the house (now called 'House') on the day of the 2018 Sydney Road Street party.

Today it's hard to imagine this house sitting alongside a busy and messy pottery works in Phoenix Street (now the Woolworths site), but this is what it looked like in the 1860s or 1870s:

From the Merri-bek Libraries collection.

And in the early years of the 20th century, the pottery was still going strong:

This image can be found on page 39 of Pictorial Brunswick.

Today it's hard to imagine a streetscape as flat as the one seen in the images of the pottery works where the highest structure is the kiln directly behind the workshed. It's also hard to imagine the noise and the dust in summer and mud in winter. The 1901 photograph seems highly sophisticated in comparison!

Changing the name of our suburbs

 

Melbourne Punch, 22 April 1869

As you probably know already, Coburg was originally called Pentridge until 1869 when residents successfully lobbied for a change to Coburg as it no longer wished to share the name of what had become Victoria's most feared prison.

You can see here the fun the staff at the Melbourne Punch had putting together a ditty based on two of the choices put forward - Merriville led to the description of its residents as Merri-villians. Coburg led to Co-burglars. 

On that occasion, Coburg was the choice.

Move forward 45 years and Coburg was looking to change its name again. It was the the first month of WW1 and now Coburg was considering divesting itself of its Germanic name. 

Some of the mooted changes will be familiar - Merri (the suggestion of the local branch of the Australian Natives Association - the ANA). Others suggestions were Stanley (probably after the newly arrived Victorian Governor) and Linlithgow (after the Scottish town, perhaps). 

We know that name change did not take place, but in 1920 anti-German sentiment was still evident when the matter of changing Coburg's name cropped up again. This time the mooted change was to 'Moreland', which eventually occurred more than 70 years later.

Moving on to Brunswick...

I discovered recently that the name Merriville occurs also in Brunswick's early history in an area that for a while was called West Northcote, then Brunswick and is now part of North Fitzroy. It was to be a suburb in its own right but this did not happen. 'Merriville Lodge' was the name of the home of the Assistant Protector (later Guardian) of Aborigines William Thomas from the 1860s until his death in December 1867. Its address was variously given as Government Road then Westgarth Street, West Northcote then Brunswick Road, Brunswick and later Holden Street, North Fitzroy.

This map of the proposed Township of West Northcote, on Thomas's land gives a slightly better idea of its location. 

And so we move forward to later 2021 and Moreland Council's decision to change the City's name.

Not long to wait to see what name is chosen. 

Sarah Sands corner, orange meets green – with unhappy results

 When Protestant William of Orange sent his men to fight off the Catholic forces of James the Second, he hoped to get rid of James forever. And he did. The Battle of the Boyne took place on 1 July 1690 on the banks of the River Boyne not far north of Dublin. William was triumphant. James was driven out and the Irish ‘troubles’ became entrenched in Ireland’s history – and the history of the Irish diaspora.  

Just over three hundred years after the Battle of the Boyne, the tensions created by this bloody battle played out on the streets of Brunswick, in particular right in front of the Sarah Sands Hotel, the southern gateway to Brunswick.

On Sunday 19 July 1896 the Police Commissioner prohibited the march. What better way to make sure there was a big turn out? And there was. Thousands found their way to this stretch of Sydney Road by whatever means was available and they succeeded in preventing the Orangemen from marching. There were violent clashes, though, and the newspaper headlines the next day shouted ‘A riotous Sunday afternoon in Brunswick’.

The following year there was huge media attention and the press published photos of masses of people at what they called ‘Red Flag’ corner. It was Sunday 18 July 1897 and almost 300 police, mostly constables on foot, had taken their places, ready to face the largest crowd ever assembled in Brunswick. It is believed that more than 30,000 people converged on the Sarah Sands corner that afternoon, arriving by tram, train and on foot from all over the city. Tensions rose as the Orangemen began their march at about 3pm and it was at this corner that the crowd broke through the barriers.

Image the excitement when a middle aged woman, later identified as 37 year old servant Johanna McMahon, leapt into the parade swirling her umbrella around. She didn’t do much damage, though, because in those days of poor roads and unmade roads, and in the middle of winter, Johanna was pushed by the police into the mud. That slowed her down enough for the police to bundle her into a cab and take her to the lockup. A few others tried to interrupt the procession but this time the marchers got through.

There were no marches, no protests the following year. So for just two years in the 1890s, this little part of Brunswick was the subject of huge media attention for its battles of the orange and the green.

And in case you’re interested, Johanna McMahon was taken before the Carlton Court, remanded to appear in Brunswick Court where she was fined 10 shillings and allowed to go home.

If you stand on the Sarah Sands corner and look around you at the recent developments that blend Brunswick’s past with its future you'll be hard put to believe the ferocity of the religious and national tensions between the English and the Irish that played out here and over many years within unions, benevolent associations, political parties and workplaces. It probably still exists in some families. It was a very real thing and affected generations of Anglo-Celtic families in Australia.

The Orange Demonstration at Brunswick, Weekly Times, 24 July 1897. The first image has the caption 'Looking on from "Red Flag" corner'. The second has the caption 'The crowd near the Sarah Sands'.

Our Lady Help of Christians site before the church was there

There's a fantastic pictorial record of Brunswick's first century in the Moreland Libraries collection and it's even available as a download through the Local History Catalogue. It's called 'Pictorial Brunswick 1839-1939' and was prepared during the Centenary year (ie 1939).

In all likelihood it was prepared by the Brunswick Historical Society, a group that had been established in 1937 to prepare for all the Centenary activity. In July 1938 (see Age, 29 July 1938), they'd had a large number of glass lantern slides printed and they put on an exhibition at the Town Hall. According to the newspaper, it showed 'old homesteads, the birth of Industry, the development of transport, and many interesting landmarks'. The Society donated their lantern slides to the Council and today the images have been digitised and made available through the Moreland Libraries catalogue. The Brunswick Historical Society disbanded in October 1959 and today we have the Brunswick Community History Group, which is interested in collecting memories, memorabilia and images from Brunswick's rich past.

And here is one image from 'Pictorial Brunswick' showing part of the suburb's rich industrial heritage. It's the stone quarry that was worked on the site of what is now Our Lady Help of Christians, in Nicholson Street, East Brunswick. The house in the background has been identified as Yeo House (which was in Barkly Street east and was the home of an early Mayor Thomas Stranger, councillor and quarryman).

Interested in the history of activism in Brunswick?

 

I'm giving a talk (a May Day tribute) on Brunswick activists and activism at the Brunswick Community History Group on Saturday 1 May at 1.30pm.

It's at Siteworks in Saxon Street, Brunswick (off Glenlyon Road).

Among others, I'll be talking about the contribution of trade unionist and historian extraordinaire Les Barnes, pensioner warrior Marg Nunan and Noel Counihan and the Free Speech protest. Plus much more ...

Betty Sullock, professional ice skater

Herald, 21 August 1952

Professional ice skater Betty Sullock, daughter of Richard Basil J.G. Sullock and his wife Jean, was brought up in White Street, Coburg. 

She learned to skate at Melbourne's Glaciarium (also known as The Glaci) at what is today's Southgate (near the State Theatre).

The Glaciarium, 16 City Road, South Melbourne. Image H2009.185/13Courtesy Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria.

In September 1949, aged 23, Betty set off for England to skate at the Westover Ice Rink at Bournemouth during their summer season. 

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she skated in England, Sweden, France, Germany and Belgium and her speciality was pair and figure skating.

By the end of 1952 she was performing regularly in Australia - in Armand Perrn's 'Ice Follie' at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney and in the show 'Hot Ice' which toured Australia from September 1953 to June 1954. By then she was married to Ken Donaghue, a stage manager of Potts Point, Sydney. (His father Jim was also a stage manager and both men worked at some stage for the famous theatrical company J.C. Williiamson's.)

The couple lived in the Sydney area where they raised their family. 

Betty Donaghue (nee Sullock), former Coburg resident and professional ice skater, died in NSW in November 2014 aged 88.

Sources:

Age, 8 April 1950

Argus, 5 May 1938

The Sun (Sydney), 7 January 1954

UK Outward Shipping records

Victorian electoral rolls

Ancestry family trees

State Library of Victoria picture collection