Residence
39 Irving Road TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
Note that the relevant HERCON criteria and themes from the City of Stonnington Environmental (TEH) are shown in brackets.
What is Significant?
The house at 39 Irving Road, Toorak is a substantial double-storey Mediterranean/Arts and Crafts Style building erected in 1929 to designs by architect George E Nichterlein. The house occupies a large site on the corner of Irving Road and Grant Avenue, which in the nineteenth century formed part of the Orrong mansion estate.
Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):
-The original external form, materials and detailing.
-The high level of external intactness.
-The legibility of the original built form from the public realm.
-The domestic garden setting (but not the fabric of the garden itself).
-The absence of modern vehicle accommodation in the undeveloped front setback.
Modern fabric, including the front fence and garage addition, is not significant.
How is it significant?
The house at 39 Irving Road, Toorak is of local architectural significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
The house is architecturally significant as one of the most impressive and architecturally distinctive interwar Arts and Crafts style residences in the municipality (Criterion D). It is a notably inventive and eclectic design combining Mediterranean, English Domestic Revival and German Baroque influences (TEH 8.4.2 Functional, eccentric and theatrical - experimentation and innovation in architecture, Criterion E).
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Residence - Physical Description 1
The property at 39 Irving Road, Toorak is occupied by a substantial double-storey house with an eclectic Arts and Crafts/ Mediterranean character. The house orientated so that is principal facade addresses the corner of Irving Road and Grant Avenue. The property also contains a single-storey servant's wing and attached garage aligned to Grant Avenue. The house's external walls are uniformly finished in a finely textured cream painted render apart from contrasting clinker brick accents at the sills and chimneys. The principal hipped roof has terracotta shingle tiles and graceful bellcast eaves. The house is inventively and intricately detailed. A classical Greek style key pattern frieze runs across the facade either side of the front entry porch. The influence of the Old English style is evident in the battered clinker brick chimneys with small gablets. Of particular interest are the florid mouldings and sculpted window reveals suggestive of German Baroque architecture.
The servant's wing on Grant Avenue has a long rectangular plan form and hipped terracotta shingle roof. It is similarly detailed to the house and has elaborate parapet mouldings over a recessed doorway. The western half of the servant's wing and attached garage are relatively recent additions, detailed to precisely match the original. The front fence was constructed c1991.[1] The house otherwise appears to be substantially intact in terms of its streetscape presentation.
[1] City of Stonnington Property File No. 7045.350.Residence - Local Historical Themes
The house at 39 Irving Road, Toorak illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, 2006, Addendum March 2009):
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 fashion
8.4.2 Functional, eccentric and theatrical -experimentation and innovation in architectureThe house is of some historical interest as evidence of the major change that took place in the 1920s and 1930s when many of Toorak's grand nineteenth century mansion estates were subdivided and redeveloped as prestigious residential enclaves (TEH 8.1.3 The end of an era - mansion estate subdivisions in the twentieth century). It also illustrates the role of large architect designed houses 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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