St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids St Peter's Cathedral
Cathedral Church of St Peter

34°54′46″S 138°35′53″E / 34.91278°S 138.59806°E / -34.91278; 138.59806
Location	Adelaide, South Australia
Country	Australia
Denomination	Anglican Church of Australia
History
Status	Cathedral
Founded	29 June 1869 (1869-06-29)
Founder(s)	Bishop Augustus Short
Dedication	St Peter the Apostle
Consecrated	1 January 1878 (1878-01-01)
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architect(s)	William Butterfield Edward John Woods
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1904
Specifications
Length	62 metres (203 ft)
Nave width	18 metres (59 ft)
Height	51 metres (168 ft)
Bells	8 (1947)
Tenor bell weight	2.1 tonnes (41 long cwt)
Administration
Diocese	Adelaide
Province	South Australia

St Peter's Cathedral is a famous Anglican cathedral in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the main church for the Archbishop of Adelaide. This beautiful church is a major landmark in Adelaide. It sits on about one acre (0.4 hectares) of land in North Adelaide, at the corner of Pennington Terrace and King William Road.

The front of the cathedral looks a bit like famous churches in Paris, like Notre Dame. It has a stunning round window, called a rose window, above the main door. This window shows stories about South Australia and the Bible.

The Rose Window of the cathedral

Building St Peter's Cathedral
Cathedral's Design and Features
- Inside the Cathedral
- The Bells of St Peter's
Music at the Cathedral
- Organists and Directors of Music
- The Cathedral Organ
Cathedral Leaders
- Deans of the Cathedral
Images for kids
See also

Building St Peter's Cathedral

Choosing a Spot for the Cathedral

In June 1847, the area of Adelaide became a special church district. Since there was no main church yet, Trinity Church was used as a temporary cathedral. The first Bishop of Adelaide, Augustus Short, held his first special church services there in 1848.

Years before, when Adelaide was planned, a piece of land in Victoria Square was set aside for public use. Bishop Short got permission to use this land for the cathedral in 1848. People started donating money to build the church. However, soon after, people questioned if the land grant was legal. They said the area was a public park, and the governor couldn't give it away. The Supreme Court decided in 1855 that the land grant was not valid. This meant the church could not be built there.

Starting Construction in North Adelaide

Bishop Short then bought a new piece of land in North Adelaide in 1862. By 1868, enough money had been raised, and he decided to start building the cathedral there. Bishop Short asked William Butterfield to design the cathedral. However, because communication between England and Adelaide was slow, there were delays and disagreements.

Butterfield's plans were bought and given to Edward John Woods, an architect in Adelaide. Woods made some changes to the materials and design, but he kept Butterfield's main ideas. Woods was known to be influenced by a French architect, so the cathedral has some French Gothic features.

Bishop Short laid the first stone of the cathedral on St Peter's Day in 1869. Over a thousand people watched this important event. The building work was slow, but the first church service was held there in 1876, even though the building wasn't finished. Regular services began in May 1877.

Finishing the Cathedral's Main Parts

The women of the church raised money to buy an organ, which was put in place in 1877. The first part of the cathedral was officially opened on January 1, 1878. By the time Bishop Short retired in 1881, about £18,000 had been spent. Many items inside the church were also donated, such as stained-glass windows, a marble font, and the altar.

Building work started again in 1890 when Bishop George Wyndham Kennion was in charge. The Governor, the Earl of Kintore, laid another important stone on September 27. The church members raised more money, and Woods was again the architect. Over £10,000 was spent to start the two towers and the western part of the church, and to finish the northern entrance. However, building stopped in 1894 because they ran out of money.

Completing the Towers and Spires

In 1897, Sir Thomas Elder left £4,000 to the church in his will. This money, along with other donations, helped the building fund. In 1899, a company was hired to finish the main part of the church (the nave) and build the towers up to the roof. In 1900, Robert Barr Smith donated £10,000 to finish the towers, the tall spires, and to add a rounded end (an apse) to the church.

The Duke and Duchess of York (who later became King George V and Queen Mary) were there on July 14, 1901, when the nave was officially opened. A special ceremony for the towers and spires was held on December 7, 1902. The last scaffolding was removed two months later. The south entrance and some temporary rooms were built after that. A final ceremony was held on April 7, 1904. This marked the completion of the cathedral's outside structure. The work from the 1890s had cost over £25,000.

Cathedral's Design and Features

The inside of the cathedral is about 62 meters (203 feet) long. The main part of the church (the nave) is about 18 meters (59 feet) wide. At the very top of the spires, the cathedral reaches about 51 meters (168 feet) from the ground.

The church is built using different types of stone. Some parts, like the sanctuary and choir, use sandstone from Tea Tree Gully. Lighter stone from the same area was used for the corners. The base of the building and some inside parts use stone from Glen Osmond in the Adelaide Hills. Other parts of the cathedral use stone from New Zealand, Pyrmont, New South Wales, and Murray Bridge.

Inside the Cathedral

A beautiful decorative screen, called a reredos, was placed behind the altar in 1904. It was fully finished and dedicated in 1910. The reredos is about 10 meters (34 feet) high. It has 23 colorful and gold panels, plus carved figures. The center panel shows Christ, with saints in the spaces around him. Four colored panels below Christ show events from the life of St Peter, who the cathedral is named after.

The cathedral has many beautiful stained-glass windows. Three of them were made by James Powell and Sons and were shown in the Lady chapel in 1900. The window in the southern part of the church is the largest stained glass window in the cathedral. It was dedicated in 1926. Another window, showing Saint Cecilia, the saint of church music, was put in place in 1876. Since 2018, this window has been lit from the inside at night, so people can see it from the memorial gardens. Other windows were paid for by donations and gifts.

The special seats for the clergy and choir, and the original bishop's throne, were a gift from Sir John Langdon Bonython. They were made in Adelaide in 1926. You can see carvings on the ends of the seats and around the tops of the canopies above.

The Bells of St Peter's

In the western tower, there are eight bells that are used for change ringing. These bells were bought with money left by Frederick Allen Wakeman, a church warden. They were made in England in 1946 and officially dedicated in 1947. The largest bell weighs over 41 long cwt (about 2.1 tonnes). This makes them the heaviest set of eight bells in the Southern Hemisphere. They are also the second heaviest set of eight bells in the world, after Sherborne Abbey in England. The bells are rung by members of a group called The Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers.

Music at the Cathedral

St Peter's Cathedral is well-known for its music in Adelaide. The St Peter's Cathedral Choir has been singing services for over 140 years. It is the only choir in Adelaide that has both children and adults. The choir sings at two main services each week and also performs concerts and other special events. The choir has traveled internationally five times, singing in cathedrals and chapels in England and other places. Their most recent tour was in 2023/24.

Organists and Directors of Music

Historically, the person in charge of the choir was also the organist. In 1994, these roles were split into two separate jobs: Director of Music and Organist.

Directors of Music:

* 2020–present: Anthony Hunt * 1996–2020: Leonie Hempton * 1994–1996: Peter Leech * 1963–1994: Dr John David Swale

Organists:

* 2018–2024: David Heah * 2015–2017: Joshua van Konkelenberg * 1999–2015: Shirley Gale * 1994–1999: John David Swale

The Cathedral Organ

Top: Organ console, 2015
Middle: 1929 organ, front wooden facade only partly completed, 2013
Bottom: The organ after restoration with new wooden frame, 2020

The first organ in the cathedral was built in London and installed in 1877. It was used for over 50 years before being moved to another church in 1930. The current organ was built by William Hill & Son and Norman & Beard in 1929. Until 2017, it remained mostly unchanged. It has four keyboards and 50 different sounds.

In 1963, a carved wooden case for the organ was designed, but only part of it was installed. From 2017 to 2018, the organ went through a major restoration. New sounds were added, and some older changes were reversed to make the organ sound like it did when it was first built. The console, where the organist plays, was also updated with modern features. The wooden case for the organ was finally completed, following the original design. This restoration cost about AU$1.5 million. The "First Chords" were played on the restored organ on December 2, 2018.

Cathedral Leaders

Before 1986, the bishop of Adelaide was also the main leader of the cathedral. The cathedral was managed by the bishop with help from a dean and a group called the chapter. In 1986, the way the cathedral was managed changed. Now, it is run like a regular church parish, with the dean (called the dean of the cathedral) as its main leader.