Sunday, 17 April 2016

Wolli Creek, St Magdalen's Chapel

St Magdalen's Chapel is located in the southern suburb of Wolli Creek. The Sisters of the Good Samaritan bought the Greenbank estate in 1884 and built a charitable refuge for women in 1887 known as The Retreat. The chapel was designed by Sheerin & Hennessy in the Victorian neo-Gothic architectural style and built in 1888. In recent years it has been deconsecrated and restored as part of a redevelopment of the site to high density residential.

15 comments:

  1. Quite a stocky little chapel - perhaps more evident because of the single window glass up high. The little sheltered portico style seems to be at odds with the chapel design. An interesting one.

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    1. Agreed. Even when the building had windows, they must have been very small. Perhaps that was to protect the women in the refuge.

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    2. If you click on the chapel link, you can also see a side view of the building.

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  2. Beautiful! Too bad it's no longer being used as a church, but sounds like it is being put to good use anyway.

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  3. I've never seen brick replace stained glass before....

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    1. Yes, I wondered whether they did replace the glass because the bricks match the original. Or was it designed that way from the start, maybe to display statues.

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  4. Neat shot of a great building ~

    Had minor surgery this week so behind in commenting and not sure where I left off returning comments ~ ^_^

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