St Andrew's Cathedral
Gothic sandstone cathedral built over decades on foundations twice abandoned, still the country's oldest.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney opens with Bishop William Grant Broughton, buried at Canterbury Cathedral in England, forever separated from the one built in his name here on George and Bathurst streets. It follows two failed attempts to raise a cathedral on this corner, in 1819 and 1837, before a young architect named Edmund Blacket arrived in 1842 with a letter of recommendation and an impossible job. Listen for how Blacket built on the wreckage of somebody else's failed foundations.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
St Mary's Cathedral
Gothic Revival sandstone church with twin spires added by helicopter a century after building began.
The University of Sydney Quadrangle (A14)
Sandstone Gothic quadrangle whose gargoyles mix medieval monsters with kangaroos and crocodiles.
The Garrison Church
Sandstone military chapel with a Belgian bell older than the colony, silent for sixty years before ringing again.
Mortuary Station
Gothic Revival sandstone terminus built for funeral trains bound to a distant cemetery.
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Castellated Gothic former stables, built for horses but scandalous enough to help end a governor's career.
Government House
Gothic Revival vice-regal mansion of turrets and battlements overlooking the harbour, still the governor's official residence.