Scotch College

The Chapel seventy years ago

The story so far: after the death of Littlejohn in 1933, OSCA decides to build a chapel as his memorial, and holds a competition for a design. The judge, Melbourne architect Percy Meldrum, awards the first prize of £100 ($200) to the plan submitted jointly by Messrs. J. D. Scarborough, J. Kirkland Robertson and Allan R. Love.

John Scarborough was the chief among these architects, and his design drew on the gothic cathedral at Albi (pictured), in southern France, built over the two centuries between 1282 and 1480.

As photographs show, the similarities are striking.

A description of the Chapel could apply equally to the cathedral: ‘general simplicity of line, concentration of ornamental detail and a tendency towards loftiness in proportion being salient characteristics’ (OSCA Year Book for 1941, p. 18).

‘The exterior of the building depends almost entirely on proportion, massing, and the effects obtained by faceting the wall faces, resulting in a constant change of light and shade. Ornament is entirely confined to the traceried window heads and door surrounds; and this concentration of detail with its contrasting plain surfaces forms a keynote which is retained throughout the scheme.’

‘Consideration of cost necessitated the use of brick’, but Scarborough chose bricks of pleasing texture and colour, just as the builders of Albi Cathedral forswore the cold grey stone of the North Sea for the warmer sun-drenched colours of the Mediterranean.

Work began on the Chapel in May 1935.