Page 33 - The Gonzaga Record 1985
P. 33
The new boys' chapel
The importance of the decisions made when the Hall was built now became
apparent. The Hall was the first extension of the school beyond the two original
Bewley houses. As mentioned above, the quality and type of building put up for the
Hall would have an immense influence on all further building. The quality of that
cut-granite, copper roofed building dictated to a large extent the quality of the new
school Chapel. The fact that Mr Andrew Devane was architect for both buildings
ensured that the standard was maintained.
The morning of 31 May 1965 was sunny and bright. The school, staff and boys,
assembled for a modest but important ceremony. The Rector, Fr John Hughes SJ
blessed the site, and then turned the first sod for the new school chapel. By mid-
June the foundations were all ready and the steel girders were in place. Then things
seemed to slow down. There was a lot of what appeared to be fussy work with cut
granite going on. It was hard to follow what was happening. No proper outline of
an honest straight wall was emerging. Strange bits of pillars in clusters were a
puzzle. These eventually became the series of louvres in cut granite that are on
each side of the sanctuary and open on the water pools that are an unusual feature
of the building.
What we got in the end was a triangular building of great beauty. The granite
25
The importance of the decisions made when the Hall was built now became
apparent. The Hall was the first extension of the school beyond the two original
Bewley houses. As mentioned above, the quality and type of building put up for the
Hall would have an immense influence on all further building. The quality of that
cut-granite, copper roofed building dictated to a large extent the quality of the new
school Chapel. The fact that Mr Andrew Devane was architect for both buildings
ensured that the standard was maintained.
The morning of 31 May 1965 was sunny and bright. The school, staff and boys,
assembled for a modest but important ceremony. The Rector, Fr John Hughes SJ
blessed the site, and then turned the first sod for the new school chapel. By mid-
June the foundations were all ready and the steel girders were in place. Then things
seemed to slow down. There was a lot of what appeared to be fussy work with cut
granite going on. It was hard to follow what was happening. No proper outline of
an honest straight wall was emerging. Strange bits of pillars in clusters were a
puzzle. These eventually became the series of louvres in cut granite that are on
each side of the sanctuary and open on the water pools that are an unusual feature
of the building.
What we got in the end was a triangular building of great beauty. The granite
25
