Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church - Burke Road, Glen Iris

            Built on the corner of Glenvale and Burke Roads in Glen Iris, Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church is an elegant Spanish Mission style building which rises proudly from behind a neatly clipped hedge.  The building stands proudly on the undulating rise of a hill near the busy intersection of Malvern and Burke Roads with its shops and tram stops and railway station.  

The present day Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church building we see was not the original church.  The original building was built on land loaned by the Religious of the Sacred Heart in the grounds of the Sacre Coeur convent.  Run by the Vincentian Fathers of Malvern, the small congregation began to grow and in 1927 the Glen Iris Roman Catholic parish of Saint Vincent welcomed their first parish priest, Father Patrick Roch Loughnan.  It would be he who would provide the name for the parish and so it was in 1928 the Parish of Glen Iris changed its name from Saint Vincent to Saint Roch.  Saint Roch was a French 14th Century saint, who is the guardian against pestilence and is also the patron saint of all dog lovers. Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church became the first, and to this day remains the only Parish to bear Saint Roch’s name in the whole of Australia.

In 1937, ten years after its initial establishment, the expanding needs of Sacre Coeur meant that the Religious of the Sacred Heart required the land on which the original Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church stood for their own purposes.  Therefore the difficult decision was made to relocate the church from the site at Sacre Coeur to a new site on land already acquired by the Roman Catholic Church on Burke Road.  The bricks from the site at Sacre Coeur were transported down the road and by 13th February 1930, a Spanish mission style church stood completed on the corner of Glenvale and Burke Roads.

The choice of a Spanish Mission style church was not made simply because it was a fashionable middle-class 1930s architectural style.  It was a deliberate decision.  As the Roman Catholic Church was short of funds owing to the Great Depression, which whilst not as severe in Australia as America still had a significant impact, a fundraising appeal to assist in paying the costs of the church's relocation was also started. The plan was not, however, to replicate the original church design, but rather to use as much recycled material as possible from the old church, in the construction of the new church, which was completed in 1938.

Built to the designs of ecclesiastical architect Patrick O'Connor, Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church is typical of the Spanish Mission style of architecture.  It features a stuccoed treatment to its walls, it is stripped back and has very elegant lines with small concentrations of decoration, it has an elongated shape and the belfry that stands as a landmark above the single and double-storey buildings in its immediate vicinity.  In addition it has architectural features typical of the Spanish Mission style, including; groups of narrow arched windows, ornamental grillework, decorative parapets on the belfry, a hipped roof and Spanish or Roman style tiles. 

The Spanish Mission style was typically a style that emerged in California during the interwar years and spread across the world.

Patrick Joseph O'Connor was born in Melbourne in 1901, to John O'Connor, a stationmaster, and his wife Margaret.  One of thirteen children, he was born into a very religious family.  He was educated at a Catholic school in Carnegie before joining the Victorian Railways Architects Office as an articled pupil. He studied architecture at night classes conducted at the Working Men's College and after gaining experience in the Railways Department, he set up in practice as an architect in Collins Street in 1926.  He took James Thomas Brophy into partnership in 1946, after which the practice was known as O'Connor & Brophy.  Patrick specialised in ecclesiastical and brewery industry work, however it was the former that he was most well known and sought out for.  He designed many Catholic churches, presbyteries, schools, hospitals and convents in Victoria between 1926 and his death in 1959.  Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church is considered one of his most outstanding architectural works.  In addition to Saint Roch's Roman Catholic Church he also designed: Saint Mary Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Ascot Vale in 1934, Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Brighton in 1938, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Sunshine in 1940, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Newport in 1942, Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church at the Flinders Naval Depot in 1948, The Albion Methodist Church in 1951, Saint Margaret Mary's Catholic Church in Spotswood in 1953, and he Great Britain Hotel in Flinders Street.

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / Melbourne / Gardiner (show map)

Taken on: January 16, 2019

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/9.0, 1/160 sec, 8.3mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/9.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	8.3mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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