Built back when the area was still known as Papendorp, this building instantly reminded me of the architecture of Sir Herbert Baker. I have long been a fan of his architecture and am constantly amazed at how many buildings he has played a part in across the country. It was only after quite a bit of digging that I discovered that my suspicions were actually right.
St Mary’s started out as a simple rectangular building in 1856, possibly built to resemble the designs of Sophy Gray. The church grew in various stages to its present appearance, achieved by 1897 when Sir Herbert Baker, with unusual sympathy, added the north aisle, a vestry and the tower. As a result, when seen from the east, St Mary’s has the unplanned, organic appearance of an early English parish church.
St. Mary’s possesses a ‘Westminster peal’ of bells. The set of eight bells was manufactured by Barwell of Birmingham and were installed on 15 December 1903. The first peal was rung a year later on 22 December 1904 and lasted 3 hours 7 minutes. In those early days St Mary’s was the only tower at the Cape capable of ringing a full peal - fully hand operated. In February 1965 the bells for St George’s Cathedral arrived in South Africa and the bells were installed in the tower, designed by Revel Fox, in 1970. It was only in 1974 that the first peal was heard from St George’s Cathedral. Today, St. George's Cathedral's bellringers still use St. Mary's Bell's for their practice sessions
It is sad, yet understandable, that for a building of such historical value to exist it needs to be secured behind fences whilst not in use. Hence, rather than place the cache on church property it has been placed outside. If however, you do drop by at one of the few times when the gates are open or someone is around I highly recommend you take a look around inside.
FTF honours go to Trevorh7000. Congrats!