Architecture

St Paul's Cathedral is built in with a style known as Gothic transitional, being partly Early English and partly Decorated. It was designed by the English architect William Butterfield. The foundation stone was laid in 1880. Butterfield never saw the site and the building work was delayed a lot by arguments between Butterfield in England and the church authorities in Melbourne. William Butterfield resigned in 1884 and the building was finished by a local architect, Joseph Reed. The design of the spires is quite different from those originally planned.The cathedral has a scale model of the original completed design. The cathedral was consecrated on 22 January 1891, but the building of the spires did not start until 1926. The spires were designed by John Barr, an architect from Sydney.

St Paul's is unusual among Melbourne's great 19th century public buildings because it is not made from bluestone; instead it is made from sandstone and limestone, both from near Geelong, giving the cathedral a warm yellow-brown colouring rather than Melbourne's characteristic cold blue-grey. This gives it a strikingly different appearance to the bluestone Gothic of St Patrick's Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern edge of the city, since the spires are made from sandstone and are 30 years newer, they are a darker tone than the older parts of the building. St Paul's Moorhouse Tower is the second highest Anglican spire in the world, the tallest being that of Salisbury Cathedral.

By the 1990s the constant traffic vibration of central Melbourne had led to concerns about the structure of the cathedral being sound, particularly the spires. A public appeal raised $18 million to restore the spires and improve the interior of the building. The seven-year restoration project was finished in 2009, under the guidance of Falkinger Andronas Architects and Heritage Consultants. The restoration works were done by Cathedral Stone. As part of the work the stone heads of David Richardson and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch were added to the spires and new dalle de verre glass was created for the new west doors and the "Eighth Day" lantern in the Moorhouse Tower.