Villa
23 Ethel Street MALVERN, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The villa at 23 Ethel Street, Malvern, is significant. It was constructed in 1891 and is a substantial single-storey Italianate villa with unusual asymmetrical massing with a cast-iron return verandah, set in a mature garden on a corner allotment.
The house is significant as viewed and appreciated from both Ethel and Mary streets, and is significant to the extent of its nineteenth century external form and fabric.
The modern alterations and additions to the rear are not significant.
How is it significant?
The villa at 23 Ethel Street, Malvern is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, 23 Ethel Street, Malvern is a fine and highly intact representative example of a substantial Victorian Italianate villa built for middle-class residents of Malvern, of the sort that began to characterise the suburb in the 1880s and 1890s. The villa exhibits typical features of this type, including an asymmetrical plan form, cast-iron verandah, a hipped roof clad in slate, and rendered chimneys with heavy cornices. (Criterion D).
Aesthetically, it is distinguished by its unusual massing and siting that is emphasised by the encircling cast-iron verandah that returns on either side of the corner canted bay. The verandah is notable for its high quality and elaborate cast-iron work that includes twisted cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals, which are clustered at the front corners of the canted section with an intricate arched insert between them. The raised verandah also utilises floral cast-iron balustrade panels which are of note. The building is highly intact retaining its ruled render finish and ogee-profile verandah clad in corrugated iron. (Criterion E)
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Villa - Physical Description 1
The residence at 23 Ethel Street is a notable example of a single-storey Italianate villa which occupies a corner allotment on the south-west corner of Ethel and Mary streets in Malvern. The house is set within an established garden which largely conceals the house from both street frontages behind a sympathetic reproduction timber picket fence. The property extends to the rear laneway which is accessed from Mary Street.
Constructed by 1891, the villa is an unusual variation on the single-storey asymmetrical Italianate villa type which became popular during the 1880s. The type typically adopts a canted projecting bay to one side of the main facade, beside a cast-iron or timber verandah. In this instance, the composition has been varied so that the projecting canted bay addresses the entrance to the property on the corner of Ethel and Mary streets. The unusual massing is emphasised by the cast-iron verandah that encircles the canted bay and returns on either side of the bay. On the north elevation, the verandah terminates at a secondary rectangular projecting bay that is adjacent to the main entrance.
The building has a hipped roof, clad in slate, with cement rendered chimneys with moulded cornices that are typical of the style. The eaves have timber brackets of a carved design with a pierced hole. The rendered walls retain their ruled finish (although painted) with quoins expressed to the external building corners. Full height segmentally arched windows beneath the verandah are intact with an interesting stepped label detail.
The villa is further distinguished by its raised cast-iron encircling verandah, with elaborate and high quality cast-iron work. It has a shallow ogee-profile roof, clad in corrugated iron, and twisted cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals and brackets but no frieze. At the front corners of the canted section is a cluster of three columns with an arched insert between them. The raised verandah also utilises floral cast-iron balustrade panels.
The house appears substantially intact externally despite a large two-storey addition constructed to the rear of the house, which is visible along Mary Street. As noted in the History, these works involved some demolition and alterations to the south-west corner of the house, which is not visible from either street front, though the two-storey extension built in the south-west corner and extending behind the original extent of the house is. The attached garage of the extension extends to the rear laneway.
Villa - Historical Australian 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
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A2
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KAWARAUVictorian Heritage Register H0489
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STONINGTONVictorian Heritage Register H1608
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KATANGAVictorian Heritage Register H0935
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