GOWRIE COURT

716 ORRONG ROAD,, TOORAK VIC 3142 - Property No 45389

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Stonnington City

Gowrie Court

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • Physical Description 1

    GOWRIE COURT - Physical Description 1

    Gowrie Court flats, 716 Orrong Road, Toorak, is a large, two-storey block of flats and a smaller garage and mews block. The L-shaped block and the garage/mews are situated around a long courtyard, which is open to Orrong Road. There are small garden beds along the flats building with brick edging and paths, but the rest of the courtyard is paved. The front of the property is bounded by a low brick fence and a wide vehicular entry at the centre with tall piers. On either side of the entry are curved benches integrated into the wall. The detailing of the fence is exceptional, with 'gabled' coping to the low piers and the back rest of the benches, and a band of narrow clay tiles at the top of the fence and low piers, and six bands in all on the tall gate piers. The piers retain carriage lamps at the top, which may be early.

    The flats building has a high hipped roof with brown Marseille tiles and exposed rafter ends. Chimneys are massive with corbelling to the top. There is a variety of two-storey hipped and gabled breakfronts along the elevations to the courtyard, which mark the entries to the different flats. The gables have flush verges, corbelled ends and intricate brickwork vents at the apex.

    The clinker bricks have some overburnt texture to them, and there are also simple diamond patters created by protruding headers, suggesting diaper work.

    Entries are varied, and include round-arched brick openings with wrought-iron gates, segmentally arched openings, and a parapeted entrance tower in the inner corner at the rear of the courtyard. The window types and shapes are even more varied, with six-over-six double-hung sashes - both rectangular and segmentally arched, some with two-over-two sidelights, two-storey canted bay windows with board-and-batten cladding to the spandrels, a canted oriel window with a bell-cast roof and conical brick corbelling below, and tiny triangular oriel windows resting on a triangular timber bracket.The many projecting bays and the multiplicity of door and window types and shapes lends a pleasant picturesque character to the flats and effectively breaks up the building's bulk.

    The mews building on the north side of the courtyard is much simpler in massing and details, but shares the same wall and roofing materials. A small mews flat is located above a row of garages. At the west end is a parapeted bay, providing entry to the flat. Windows to the flat are six-over-six double-hung sashes with louvered shutters, lending it a Georgian Revival appearance. All garage doors are modern.

    There is a recent bank of garages adjoining the west end of the mews building, which is sympathetic in design, with a high hipped and tiled roof, and clinker brick walls. Built in 1983, it replaced four carports of unknown date. Dormer windows were added to the roof of the flats building at the same time to create an upper level, designed by Joyce Nankivell Architects. A number of them face the courtyard, but were sympathetically and unobtrusively designed, with only one clearly visible from the public domain (on the western slope of the roof). In 1996 a small first-floor terrace at the front of the site, the north-west corner, was enclosed. This involved the creation of a new hip above it, and creation of brick walls and multipane windows to enclose it, both intended to match the original features.

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Stonnington - Residential Flats in Stonnington - Heritage Citations Project

    Author: Context P/L
    Year: 2013
    Grading: A2

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