While such places incorporated traditional elements and symbology, designs were broadly characterised by a more simplified and freer approach than 19th century Gothic Revival examples, and featured less complicated ornamentation, large plain wall expanses and the "honest" use of materials.

Other similar churches designed by Atkinson and Conrad for the Brisbane Diocese in the 1920s include those built in Sherwood, Wilston, and St Alban's Chapel at The Southport School.

We should create the right spiritual emotion by surrounding the worshippers with beauty, and so lift men's minds that their souls may be brought into closer harmony with God".

[1][27] Architectural elements outlined by Conrad to achieve this goal included: brick construction over timber, with bare treatments to interior walls; large windows at the rear of the church and side windows on the chancel (rather than behind the altar); low-toned cathedral glass in simple leaded design where stained glass was not affordable, naves that were long rather than wide, and internal roofing wholly of wood, with heavy timber for open trussed roofs, stained with a dull finish to create "an interesting and dignified treatment".

As one of Brisbane's leading architectural firms, Atkinson and Conrad were closely involved in this process, designing numerous commercial, civic and residential buildings.

[33] The diocesan publication the Church Chronicle praised the "pleasing and dignified design" and the wider windows and roof ventilation system used to keep the building cool.

[34] Other ventilation features were a pair of doorways on both sides of the nave enclosed by balustrading, and metal grilles in the chancel window sills, allowing air to be drawn in through the walls.

In January 1925 the Church Chronicle published internal and external images of St Paul's, "in order that other parishes may be inspired to friendly rivalry with the people of East Brisbane and desire to do similar good work".

The parish Girls' Guild donated a timber altar (inscribed "To the dear memory of those who served in the Great War 1914-1918") and the lectern with a brass eagle, which came from England.

[43] St Paul's was consecrated in a ceremony on 29 August 1937, having met the requirements: permanency of building, freedom of debt, and the vesting of the property in the Synod.

In June 1952 an illuminated cross on top of the church was destroyed by a shotgun blast fired from a car, thought by police to be the work of "anti-religious cranks".

The Archbishop of the time, Dr William Wand, publicly opposed placing ashes in the main body of the church, preferring a designated annex such as a remodelled crypt or eastward extension.

[1][61] When the plan to construct a columbarium at St Paul's became known, 150 local residents signed a petition presented to Brisbane's Lord Mayor Alderman Frank Edward Roberts, "desiring the district to remain a pleasant residential one" and considering the crematorium or a nearby cemetery a more suitable location for storing ashes.

Contained within an area of 30 by 15 feet (9.1 by 4.6 m), the columbarium, a roofless structure of four 10-foot (3.0 m) high brick walls with a wrought iron gated entrance, was constructed at a cost of £1000 and dedicated on 4 July 1954.

At the opening ceremony Archbishop Reginald Halse stated, "Early Christians had raised no objection to cremation, but had buried their dead because of heathen rites which used fire.

[1] St Paul's Anglican Church is situated prominently on an elevated site at the corner of Vulture Street and Balmoral Terrace in East Brisbane.

[1] Employing asymmetry, heavy massing, high quality brickwork, semi-circular forms and simplified ornamentation, the design of St Paul's combines characteristics of Gothic, Romanesque and Arts and Crafts styles.

The church is constructed in dark-red-brown Flemish bond brickwork, with painted render dressings defining features such as string courses, copings, lintels and sills (internally and externally).

The prominent roof form is clad with rib-and-pan profile metal sheeting (replaced in 1997), and features flared eaves supported on decoratively trimmed rafters with a raked soffit of tongue-and-groove boards.

The belfry atop the octagonal bell tower is enclosed with fixed timber louvres between brick piers of alternating, three-course bands of rendered and face brickwork capped by a concrete hemispherical cupola.

Finely detailed trusses, supported on concrete corbels, incorporate semi-circular laminated arches of three vertical layers, bolted and strapped together at intervals.

Red cement-rendered floors, scored to form a square grid, are found throughout the church and entrance porch, except in the chancel, which has been subsequently tiled, and in the former organ chamber, where it is covered in carpet.

The altar table, of carved timber panels, features gilded lettering – "TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR 1914–18" – across the front face.

[1] Non-significant additions to the church interior include a boarded lining to the chapel and northern nave walls, carpets, fluorescent lighting and ceiling fans.

[1] The lych gate, flanked on both sides by random rubble retaining walls, defines the main entrance to the church grounds at the corner of Vulture Street and Balmoral Terrace.

[1] The columbarium in the north-east corner of the site, separated from the church by a narrow walkway, is a small, open-walled courtyard, accessed through an arched opening with a metal gate.

St Paul's is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of 1920s Anglican church architecture in Queensland, expressed in its form, exterior detail and internal layout, fittings, fixtures and decorative treatments.

The church accommodates traditional internal spaces and elements including the nave, chancel and vestries, coloured glass windows, and ecclesiastical furnishings.

[1] The 1954 columbarium also demonstrates the principal characteristics of its type; discreetly located within the church ground, the space is enclosed with walls containing niches for ashes of the dead.

[1] Sited in an elevated position to express the prominence of the Anglican community, St Paul's makes an important architectural contribution to the Vulture Street streetscape and to the suburb of East Brisbane.