Before Parliament House was opened, the Victorian Parliament sat at St Patrick's Hall in Bourke Street, just west of Queen Street, and which was located next to Melbourne's first Synagogue. The first parliamentary session held in St Patrick's Hall was on November 13, 1851. The hall, designed by Samuel Jackson, was the only building at the time in Melbourne large enough to accommodate Parliament. Jackson had arrived in Melbourne in 1835 on John Pascoe Fawkner's Enterprise. He then returned to Launceston but arrived back in Melbourne four years later. Jackson designed some of Melbourne's notable early buildings including St Francis' Church and the first Scots Church in 1841 and the Melbourne Hospital in 1846 (1). St Patrick's Hall opened on June 5, 1849 with a ball attended by nearly 400 people, where the dancing was kept up with great animation until nearly daylight (2).
In 1872, the Hall was was enlarged and renovated with a new handsome front, entering to the hall, lowering the bottom floor to the level of the street, and doing away with the present unsightly steps. It is anticipated that by this means the appearance of the building will be improved, and greater accommodation secured (3). The works were designed by J. M. Barry (4).
St Patrick's Hall (right) and the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in 1852.
The Hall hosted the Victorian Parliament from its first sitting on November 13, 1851 until 1856. The names of all the representatives present at the first sitting are listed in the scroll work.
St. Patrick's Hall, the first Legislative House of Victoria, c. 1852. Artist and engraver: David Tulloch.
State Library of Victoria Image H86.4/1
The hall was built by the St Patrick's Society (5). The Society was established on June 28 1842 for the encouragement of national feeling, the relief of the destitute, the promotion of education, and, generally, whatever may be considered by its members best calculated to promote the happiness, the honor, and prosperity of their native and adopted land (6). Other groups who used the Hall included the Hibernian Society, the Ladies Hibernian Society and the Young Ireland Society.
The St Patrick's Day March started at the Hall every year and over the years it was also the venue for balls, concerts, meetings and lectures, both educational and political. A branch of the Irish Republican Association, which advocated for Irish independence from the British, was formed at a meeting at the Hall in January 1921 (7). From the late 1920s to the 1940s it was also the venue for Tone Pearse Republican Cumann activities. This was a group that promoted Irish interests and culture. Cumann is Irish for a political party branch - the motto of organization was 'The aims of Tone, the means of Pearse' (8). Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) was an Irish nationalist who fought to overthrow British rule in Ireland (9) and Patrick Pearse was the President of the 1916 provisional Irish Government and commanded the Irish forces in the 1916 Easter Uprising. After the uprising failed he was shot by the English by firing-squad (10).
In 1947, the hall became the home of the Ballet Guild, the forerunner of the Victorian Ballet Company (11). St Patrick's Hall was put up for sale in 1951 and sold for £42,500 to an undisclosed buyer (12). It was resold in February 1957 to the London Assurance Company who planned to erect a modern office building on the site (13) which opened November 20, 1958 (14). It is sad that a building that played such a significant role in the early history of Victoria and the political and cultural life of Irish Victorians was demolished, but some of it remains in St James the Great Anglican Church in Inkerman Street, St Kilda East. The Age reported on the laying of the foundation stone of this Church in February 1959 that two of the pillars to be incorporated into the building came from St Patrick's Hall (15). I wonder if any other parts of the Hall still exists?
St Patrick's Hall, with the extension or handsome new front (right) and the Synagogue.
St. Patrick's Hall and Jewish Synagogue, c. 1876-1894. Photographer: John William Lindt.
State Library of Victoria Image H42502/11
The building to the west of St Patrick's Hall in Bourke Street was the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. The Foundation stone was laid on August 25, 1847 by the President of the Congregation, Solomon Benjamin (16). It was reported that nearly all of the Jewish persuasion resident in Melbourne attended the ceremony (17). According to the March 1846 Census, the total European population of the Port Phillip District was 32,184 of which 117 described themselves as Jewish (18). The Synagogue, designed by Charles Laing, was officially consecrated on March 17, 1848 (19). Charles Laing also designed St Peters, Eastern Hill Anglican Church and the Melbourne Benevolent Society in North Melbourne (20).
This building, which was built at the rear of the block, as you can see in the image at the top of this post, was always intended as a temporary building (21) and on December 1, 1853, the foundation stone was laid for a new building in front of the original one (22). This stone was laid by David Benjamin, Solomon's brother (23) and it was opened the Sunday before Passover in 1855 (24). The new building was designed by Charles Webb whose other work includes the Alfred Hospital, the Royal Arcade and the South Melbourne Town Hall (25). Three years later in 1858 five months of work was undertaken to transform what was one of the plainest and uninviting interiors in the City into one of the most tasteful and elegant. The work required the building to be re-consecrated and this happened in the September (26).
The Synagogue, 1860s.
State Library of Victoria image H2004.55/12
I wondered if there was much formal interaction between the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation and the St Patrick's Society. Lazarus Goldman (27) writes of a few examples. Asher Hymen Hart (28) President of the Congregation from 1844, who was popular amongst all classes of citizens, was especially welcome amongst the Irish, often contributing towards their funds. Mr Hart attended St Patrick's Day Dinners and was said to admire the St Patrick's Society advancement of education (29). In 1877, the Jewish school which occupied the original Synagogue, had to relocate for a month as there was an outbreak of scarletina in the family of one of the officials who lived on the grounds, so the children attended school in the St Patrick's Hall (30). School concerts were also held in the Hall (31). Different cultural practices also caused some issues as Goldman writes that the noise from the dancing in the St Patrick's Hall next door interfered with the services held in the Synagogue on Kol Nidre nights, and only by individual efforts of some committeemen did the organisers of the dances refrain from holding functions on the eve of the Day of Atonement (32).
The Synagogue and St Patrick's Hall in Bourke Street.
Synagogue Bourke Street, dated 1914-1941. State Library of Victoria Image H22992
Eighty years of coexisting as neighbours came to an end in 1930, when the Congregation built a new Synagogue in South Yarra. The last service held in Bourke Street was on January 19, 1930 (33). The building had been sold in November 1927 for £52,500 (34) to the Equity Trustees Company who demolished it in April 1930 to erect their new building on the site (35).
The Synagogue being demolished - all that remains of the building in this photo are the six pillars.
The Argus, April 4, 1930 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4079390
The Equity Trustees building, designed by the Architects, Oakley and Parkes, opened in 1931. Their address is 472 Bourke Street, on the corner of what was Synagogue Lane, the only reminder of the former Synagogue. It hasn't been called Synagogue Lane for some years, looking at old newspapers the name was used in the 1880s, then became Bourke Lane, then renamed Little Queen Street around the 1910s.
The only reminder of the Synagogue in Bourke Street.
Image: Isaac Hermann (taken March 2022)
Footnotes
(1) Samuel Jackson (1807 - 1876). Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(2) Geelong Advertiser, June 9, 1849, see here.
(3) The Advocate, April 12, 1951, see here, led me to the original article I quoted from in The Advocate of January 6, 1872, see here. There is also a detailed account of the extensions and renovations in The Advocate, June 1, 1872, see here and The Advocate of November 23, 1872, see here.
(4) John Michael Barry (c. 1826 - 1911). Born in Dublin, worked in Melbourne for 19 years until he returned to Dublin, where he spent the rest of his life. Amongst other work, Barry also designed the Western Market which opened 1868. Dictionary of Irish Architects, 1720-1940, see here.
(5) The Advocate, April 5, 1951, see here. The article looks back at the history of the St Patrick's Society and the early days of the Hall.
(6) Port Phillip Gazette, July 2, 1842, see here.
(7) The Advocate, January 25, 1923, see here. The article has a full report of the resolutions which were passed.
(8) The Advocate, January 20, 1927, see here. The organisation was formed in January 1927, see The Advocate, January 20, 1927, here.
(9) Wolfe Tone - born Theobald Wolfe Tone. Britannica on-line, see here.
(10) Patrick Henry Pearse, (1879 - 1916). Britannica on-line, see here.
(11) The Argus, June 28, 1947, see here.
(13) The Age, Feb 22, 1957, accessed on Newspapers Plus - an add-on to Ancestry.
(14) The Age, October 28, 1958, accessed on Newspapers Plus - an add-on to Ancestry.
(15) The Age, February 7, 1959, p. 8, accessed on Newspapers Plus - an add-on to Ancestry. I have written about St James the Great Anglican Church, here.
The Age, February 7, 1959, p. 8
(16) Goldman, Lazarus Morris The Jews in Victoria in the Nineteenth Century (published by the Author, 1954), p. 54. The ceremony was reported in the Port Phillip Gazette of August 28, 1847, see here. Solomon Benjamin had arrived in the Colony in 1838. He died at the age of 70 in 1888, you can read about his life in his informative obituary in the Jewish Herald, of April 13, 1888, see here.
(17) Port Phillip Gazette of August 28, 1847, see here.
(18) Goldman, op. cit., p. 53.
(19) Goldman, op. cit., p. 57.
(20) Charles Laing (1809-1857). See his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(21) Freeland, J.M. Melbourne Churches, 1836-1851: an Architectural record (Melbourne University Press, 1963), p. 143. This is a great book if you have an interest in Colonial Melbourne and historic Churches.
(22) Freeland, op. cit., p. 144.
(23) Freeland, op. cit., p. 144. There is a short obituary for David Benjamin in the Jewish Herald of July 14, 1893, see here. He is also mentioned in Solomon's obituary, see link in Footnote 16.
(24) Freeland, op. cit., p. 144.
(25) Charles Webb (1821-1898), see his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, here.
(26) The Age, September 3, 1858, see here.
(27) Goldman, op. cit
(28) Asher Hymen Hart (1811-1871). We started this post off with Rabbi Moses Rintel. The Rabbi's wife was Elvina Hart. Elvina's sister Isabella married Asher's brother, Edward, in 1844 (Goldman p. 47). Asher died in London on January 15, 1871.
(29) Goldman, op. cit., pp 49-50.
(30) Goldman, op. cit, p. 247. The official was Marcus Josephson and his role was the Shamos, which Mr Goldman describes as a 'Beadle'. He has a useful glossary in his book on pages 413-417.
(31) Goldman, op. cit, p. 261.
(32) Goldman, op. cit, p. 247.
(33) The Hebrew Standard of Australasia, January 24, 1930, see here.
(34) The Age, November 1, 1927, see here.
(35) The Argus, April 4, 1930, see here.
(36) The Herald, March 23, 1931, see here.
