Residence
14 St Georges Road TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
Note that the relevant HERCON criteria are shown in brackets.
What is Significant?
The building at 14 St George Road, Toorak is a substantial double-storey residence with restrained Mediterranean/Georgian revival character. It was built c1929 to designs by architect A J Ainslie, on an allotment that was created through various subdivisions of the Toorak House estate.
Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):
- The original external form, materials and detailing of the building.
- The high level of external intactness.
- The legibility of the original built form in views from the public realm.
- The front fence.
- The layout of the circular driveway.
- The domestic garden setting - but not the fabric of the garden itself.
How is it significant?
The house at 14 St Georges Road, Toorak is of local architectural significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
The house is architecturally significant as a notably large, well designed and generally intact interwar residence with a refined Mediterranean/Georgian revival character (Criterion D). It is distinguished from most other examples of this idiom in the municipality by virtue of its impressive scale.
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Residence - Physical Description 1
The property at 14 St Georges Road is occupied by a very large, double storey residence displaying a hybrid interwar Georgian revival/Mediterranean character. It has rendered walls and a multi-hipped terracotta shingle roof punctuated by robust face brick chimneys with corbelled caps. Although designed with its principal facade facing the rear garden, the imposing street elevation is not lacking in architectural interest. It has a formal and carefully balanced sense of asymmetry with a central entry porch located on axis with a circular gravel driveway. Flanking single-storey side wings have roof top terraces, enclosed by balustrades that are part solid masonry and part wrought iron. Windows typically have double-hung sash frames with louvred shutters. Photographs in the 1931 Australian Home Beautiful indicate that the brick front fence and wrought iron driveway gates are original.
The house appears to remain largely intact in terms of its streetscape presentation apart from a garage addition to the south side. Walls have been repainted white and window shutters black, replacing the original colour scheme of dull yellow walls and dark red shutters. Aerial photographs suggest that little remains of the Edna Walling designed garden apart from the circular driveway. The Marcus Martin designed pool and change rooms appear to have been replaced by a tennis court.Residence - Local Historical Themes
The house at 14 St Georges Road, Toorak illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, 2006):
8.1.3 The end of an era - mansion estate subdivisions in the twentieth century
8.4.1 Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashionThe house is of some historical interest as evidence of a major phase of development that took place in the 1920s and 1930s when many of Toorak's grand nineteenth century mansion estates were subdivided to create prestigious residential enclaves (TEH 8.1.3 The end of an era - mansion estate subdivisions in the twentieth century). Additionally, the building illustrates the role of large architect designed houses, particularly in the Georgian revival and Mediterranean modes, as symbols of wealth, status and taste for Melbourne's upper classes of the interwar period (TEH 8.4.1 - Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashion).
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Interwar Houses Study
Author: Bryce Raworth Pty Ltd
Year: 2014
Grading: A2
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