page_title: Albert Purchas
section_title: Architectural  practice
hierarchical_section_title: Albert Purchas / Architectural  practice
caption_attribution_description: English: St Georges, East St Kilda, 1877-80, Albert Purchas
context_page_description: Albert Purchas was a prominent 19th century architect and surveyor in Melbourne, Australia.
context_section_description: Purchas was soon joined his brother-in law Charles R Swyer in the partnership of Purchas & Swyer, which lasted from 1856 to 1862, after which he again practiced alone up to about 1891. Purchas had his offices at 81 Little Collins; and later 30 Queens Street, 81 Chancery Lane and finally 462 Little Collins Street.
  Alone or with Swyer purchase is said to have designed over 140 houses, offices, churches, banks and cemetery buildings in Victoria in his long career. Berkely Hall St Kilda dating from 1854 is one of his first buildings, and still exists, though the original house is obscured by an early 20thC verandah. Another notable early design was the head office of the Melbourne Savings Bank, built on the corner Flinders Lane and Market Street in 1857-58, in an elaborately detailed Renaissance Revival style.
  His churches were mostly Gothic Revival, built for the Anglican Church, along with some parsonages, while most of the bank buildings were Renaissance Revival designs for the Bank of Australasia. He also designed city buildings in the 1860s and 70s, such as the Mutual Insurance Co, Northern Insurance Co, and the first premises for George & George, destroyed by fire in 1889.
  One of his most outstanding designs is St George's Presbyterian Church in Chapel Street, St Kilda (1877–80), in a striking polychrome brick Gothic Revival style, unusually carried on through to the interior.
  Several Australian architects obtained experience working in Purchas's office, including South Australian architect Edward Davies (1852-1927), while another pupil, William Black, became a senior partner in the well-known Cape Town, South Africa  partnership of Black & Fagg. During his pupilage to Purchas, Black won several prizes offered by the RVIA, among them the Royal Victoria Institute of Architects' award in December 1885.
caption: St Georges, East St Kilda, 1877-80
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