1870s – North Adelaide Congregational Church, Adelaide, South Australia

Architect: James Cumming

Described as “Venetian in style” in the Adelaide Register of July 1870, and architects Morgan and Gilbert (in Early Adelaide Architecture 1836 – 1886) called it “an example of the non-conformist preference for the classic style, against the Anglican for the Gothic.”

The architect, James Cumming, practised for some 40 years in Adelaide, and more than half his architectural output was church buildings. The Church’s plan dimensions of some 75 feet by 46 are in the “golden section” or ratio, where length is to width, as length plus width is to length. The golden ratio was used by the Egyptians and later the Greeks, is a common theme in the natural world, and many believe it makes for fine acoustics.