FRANKLYN HOUSE FLATS
137 OSBORNE STREET,, SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141 - Property No 46314
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
Franklyn House, 137 Osborne Street, South Yarra designed and built by H.R. Lawson in 1919, is significant. The significant attributes are the Arts & Crafts Bungalow style form, materials and detailing of the flats.
Later alterations and additions are not significant.
How is it significant?
Franklyn House is of local historic and architectural significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Historically, Franklyn House is one of the oldest residential flats in the City of Stonnington and is of particular note as an early surviving example of a 'conversion' flat created by the prominent architect/builder/designer, Howard R. Lawson. While there are other examples of Lawson's work in Stonnington this is the only known example of a conversion of an existing house converted to flats.(Criterion A, B, D & E)
Architecturally, Franklyn House demonstrates a skilful conversion from a 19th-century house to flats. Lawson employed a number of simple design elements - such as the shingled front gable, strut-like timber brackets, and rows of square holes along the tops of solid balustrades - to create an attractive Arts & Crafts Bungalow facade, which is typical of his work. The external staircase to the upper level is a characteristic feature of 'conversion' flats.(Criterion D)
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FRANKLYN HOUSE FLATS - Physical Description 1
Franklyn House flats, 137 Osborne Street, South Yarra, is a two-storey red brick Victorian house that was converted into flats c1922. The primary external alteration in this conversion was the addition of a two-storey porch with an external staircase to the facade, which is Arts & Crafts Bungalow in style. The windows to the facade were also altered; enlarged from the one-over-one double hung sashes with segmentally arched heads, as seen on the side elevations, into triple sash windows with rectangular heads. Entry doors to the ground and first-floor flats are via doors with six lights in the top third, giving them the 'high-waisted' proportions popular in the early 1920s.
The new porch sits beneath an extension of the pyramidal hip roof on the north side, and a new projecting gable on the south. The entire roof is covered in corrugated steel. While it is easy to read the transition between the two building phases, the front extension creates a skilful and harmonious whole.
The front gable has a low pitch, is supported on simple timber strut-type brackets, and has an area of timber shingles above a row of modillions in its apex, with a band of roughcast render below. The gable, and the rest of the first-floor porch, rest of heavy rendered piers. A nominal capital is created for the piers with an inset vertical slit and a horizontal fillet moulding below. A similarly simple but effective decorative feature is seen along the top of the solid rendered stair and first-floor porch balustrade - rows of small square holes, created by the absence of a header brick.
The ground-floor windows to the facade may be recent replacements, but this could not be confirmed due to the high wall in front of Franklyn House. Otherwise, no post-1920s external alterations were noted.
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - Residential Flats in Stonnington - Heritage Citations Project
Author: Context P/L
Year: 2013
Grading: A2
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