Ericstane
136 Canterbury Road CANTERBURY, Boroondara City
GRIFFIN ESTATE & ENVIRONS PRECINCT
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Statement of Significance
Ericstane, at 136 Canterbury Road, Canterbury, is of local historical and architectural significance as a handsome and externally relatively intact example of a polychrome Italianate house, typical of medium-to-large residences in the Camberwell area just prior to the shift to the Federation styles. It has a dignified sense of command on its hill site, and its well-placed in its rich garden. The polychrome brickwork, vigorously patterned and woven, is Ericstane's most distinctive element, and the house is accomplished and well-crafted in its details.
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Ericstane - Physical Description 1
Ericstane is a substantial house in the Italianate manner, set well away from the street on its primary (Canterbury Road) street frontage. It is a single-storey brick residence with an asymmetrical front elevation with projecting canted bay and return bull-nosed verandah set clear of the roof eave line with cast iron columns and cast iron lace frieze. The site drops away to the south with the result that the main wing extending along Marlowe Street appears two-storey. In fact it houses an extensive undercroft cellalr with stirs uo into the main house, now sealed off, and some sleeping accommodation for servants. This is lit from the south by a set of undercroft windows directly below the living room. Ericstane has a hipped slate roof ridged in galvanized iron, and regular-spaced brackets. The verandah springs from just below the eave brackets, and is of galvanized iron supported on a set of cast-iron columns and fitted with a decorative frieze in cast iron lace. A conservatory was on the northeast corner of the main house, but this had deteriorated structurally and has been demolished pending a replacement. Walls and chimneys are in umber Hawthorn brick picked out in an energetic polychrome with cream stripes, impost, and quoins, red brick window surrounds, red patterning below the eaves and alternating red and cream brick voussoir-bricks over each window. The quoins are set out marginally from each wall corner.
The house appears to be generally intact externally, the main addition being a bathroom and associated verandah (the reference is to Bath Rm Ver.) in 1964. An outside laundry has been refurbished more recently and screened by a lattice, and the neighbouring toilet has been renewed. A freestanding dual carport was added in 1992, with roller doors facing onto Marlowe Street. The other alterations are not easily visible from Marlowe Street, however.[i] The interior has been completely refurbished in a manner compatible with the original house, and intended to reinstate the original decor. This includes the provision of William Morris wallpaper throughout the living and sleeping rooms, careful maintenance of the joinery, much of which is in a Queen Anne pattern of detailing, and a modified kitchen and scullery area with an additional toilet. The bathrooms have been refurbished in an early twentieth century manner with exposed chromium shower plumbing and 1900s-1920s pattern furniture. The living room has a spectacular arcade of windows, with beveled patterning and leadlighting dating from the 1920s. The fireplaces have been refurbished with renewed tiling from other sites, and have almost all their mirrored Queen Anne mantels intact.
Extensive garden plantings in recent years and raising the hedge screen have largely obscured the house from the street, though some details can be viewed from Marlowe Street to the immediate east. The main trees- a palm and conifers, are long-standing, as are most of the garden plantings.
The property has a new timber picket fence, added in 1986. The gate posts incorporate what appear to be reused cast iron finials from the original fence.[ii]
[i] Details sourced from the City of Camberwell Building Index, # dated 21 April 1964.
[ii] Details sourced from the City of Camberwell Building Index, # 34987, dated 21 April 1964 (new bathroom and verandah);#79541, dated 8 January 1986 (fence); #95304, dated 13 July 1992 (garage). The garage permit is listed as a carport but it is now, at least, an enclosed garage with automatic doors.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Review of B Graded Buildings in Kew, Camberwell and Hawthorn
Author: Lovell Chen Architects & Heritage Consultants
Year: 2006
Grading: BBoroondara - Camberwell Conservation Study
Author: Graeme Butler
Year: 1991
Grading:Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study: Vol. 1 Canterbury
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Significant
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