St Andrews Cathedral 1867


For years, I'd only known about the temporary wooden St Andrews Cathedral, that preceded the stone one we have today, through outlines of it on maps. And then by chance recently, for the first time I finally found a photo of it -



Above is the same spot. Today's Sydney Town Hall was built in the 1870s on what used to be Sydney's first burial ground, which closed in 1820, and from where this picture below was taken in 1867.


To verify, I found a second picture showing the temporary cathedral's location in relation to the new one.


That's the rear of it on the left, and in the centre of the pic is the north transept of the new Cathedral being built. If you enter the Google street view above, you'll see they match.

Edit: I came across this sketch of York St from 1842, long before the Town Hall and St Andrews were built, (and a decade or so before photography arrived in Oz) which shows the old wooden Cathedral at the top. Funny thing is, I've looked at this pic many times without realising what it was.


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