Wykeham Lodge
2B Erskine Street ARMADALE, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
'Wykeham Lodge', at 2B Erskine Road, Armadale, was built in 1891 for Charles Shuter, a police Magistrate, as his retirement home. Considering stylistic similarities, it appears that the house was designed by prominent Melbourne architectural practice Reed, Smart & Tappin.
The house is a substantial two-storey brick residence with cement-render detail (all overpainted). The roof has a high hip, with a corner tower which retains terracotta shingles. The house is entered via an inset porch on the east elevation. It once had a front verandah facing Malvern Road, but this has been removed.
The front carport, rear addition and the brick front fence are not significant.
How is it significant?
'Wykeham Lodge' is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, it is an example of a substantial early Queen Anne Revival house, here with an eclectic Scottish Baronial influence seen in the corner tower. It displays features that would become typical of Queen Anne Revival houses such as the use of red face brick with cement-render dressings, a high hipped roof, corner bay windows to create diagonal axes, projecting gables, and highlight windows with tiny coloured panes of glass. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, the house is distinguished by high-quality details from eclectic stylistic sources used in a free manner. They include the elaborate gable treatment like a hammer-beam truss with infill of sunburst motifs, the terracotta shingles and flared eaves of the corner tower, the elaborate classical pedimented hood marking the entrance porch, and other cement-render details such as the ox-eye gable vent and the scalloped apron mouldings to the windows. (Criterion E)
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Wykeham Lodge - Physical Description 1
'Wykeham Lodge', at 2B Erskine Street, Armadale, stands on the south-west corner of Malvern Road and Erskine Street and addresses both frontages with the main entrance to Erskine Street. It has garden setbacks to both streets, as well as a back yard to the south of the house. The house is primarily two storeys in height, with a single-storey rear wing. It is a Queen Anne villa with a Scottish Baronial influence.
The walls are of red brick with cement-render decorative details (both overpainted). The roof form is a variation on the Victorian M-profile hip roof which typically has a low transverse gable above the front facade and two rear hips divided by a valley. Here the rear hips remain the same, but the front half of the roof is a high hip more typical of the Queen Anne style. This front part of the house is slightly wider than the rear half, and has projecting gables to the east and west elevations as well as projecting bay windows at front corners. The use of projecting gables and the creation of a diagonal axis became common features of the Federation Queen Anne style. At the north-east cornice is an octagonal tower with a pointed roof with bell-cast (flared) eaves, which is a marker of the Scottish Baronial style. It is clad in terracotta shingles, which appear to be original, with a metal (possibly copper) finial at its apex. Three chimneys are visible, two to the north side and one at the south side. All are of red brick with a moulded cement-render cornice and vertical bands.
The front entrance is located at the middle of the east elevation. It is a small porch that sits within the envelope of the house. Above the entranceway is an elaborate hood in the form of a triangular classical pediment resting on consoles.
The location of the front door is marked by a roof gable above, with a complex bargeboard with a decorative hammer-beam truss. It is finely detailed, with stop-chamfering to the framing members, turned knobs at their ends, roundels at the joints, and flat sunburst motifs at the top and corners in the area between the bargeboard and truss. Finally there is a pendent-finial with a turned point at the top. The decorative truss frames an ox-eye (elongated ellipse) louvered vent with a keystone on each of four sides.
Windows are narrow with flat-arched heads, double-hung sashes and a highlight. Many of the highlights retain leadlights with multiple tiny square panes (up to 27 clear panes in a narrow coloured-glass border). The first-floor windows of the north elevation do not have highlights (but real estate photos of 2015 show them at ground-floor level). Each window has a cement-render projecting sill and a decorative render apron with a double scroll detail. A more elaborate leadlight window is visible next to the front door with a hand-painted evergreen tree in its central pane.
To the rear of the house is a narrow single-storey wing along the western boundary, which corresponds to the 1902 footprint shown on the MMBW plan. The metal-framed conservatory behind the eastern part of the house appears to be a post-1902 addition.
Views to the ground-floor are partially obscured by a high brick fence. From aerial images it appears that there is a single-storey carport adjacent to the north elevation of the house, which has replaced the north verandah seen on the 1902 MMBW plan. The brickwork of the house has been overpainted, the original red colour of the bricks is visible on the chimneys. The roof covering has been renewed with a modern profile terracotta tile, possibly replacing original terracotta shingles as seen on the pointed roof of the bay window.
The coachhouse and stables seen on the 1902 MMBW Detail Plan have been replaced with a contemporary dwelling at 2A Erskine Street.
Wykeham Lodge - Local Historical Themes
This place illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, rev. 2009):
8.2.1 'Country in the city' - Suburban development in Malvern before WWI
8.4.1 Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashion
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A2
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ARMADALE PRIMARY SCHOOLVictorian Heritage Register H1640
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ARMADALE HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0637
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STONINGTONVictorian Heritage Register H1608
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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"1890"Yarra City
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'BRAESIDE'Boroondara City
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'ELAINE'Boroondara City
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