Duplex House
14 & 16 William Street SOUTH YARRA, STONNINGTON CITY
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The semi-detached pair of two-storey houses at 14 & 16 William Street, South Yarra, are significant. They were built by Toorak builder, Henry Everest, c.1877 along with houses at 10 William Street and 12 William Street (demolished).
The semi-detached pair are massed to look like a single mansion, sharing a very wide two-storey canted bay at the centre of the front facade, which is flanked by return verandahs with cast-iron detail. The projecting bay is finished with cast and run cement render detail, as are the rear wings which sit behind the return verandahs. The walls beneath the verandah, however, are of polychrome brick.
The front fences and rear extensions are not significant.
How is it significant?
The pair at 14 & 16 William Street is of local aesthetic and technical significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Aesthetically, the pair is distinguished by modelled render ornament to the massive front canted bay of the highest quality. The contrast of the polychrome brickwork with the rendered parts of the building is also unusual and striking. (Criterion E)
Technically, the design of 14 & 16 William Street displays a very creative and successful solution to the massing of semi-detached dwellings, using a massive two-storey canted bay window at the centre of the shared facade, which creates a sculptural building read as a whole. This form has not been identified elsewhere in Stonnington, but suggests the melding of two typical asymmetrical Italianate villas. (Criterion F)
-
-
Duplex House - Physical Description 1
The houses at 14 and 16 William Street, South Yarra, are a pair of two-storey Italianate semi-detached houses. They are carefully massed to resemble a single mansion house, with symmetrical return verandahs terminating at a massive two-storey canted bay window in the centre of the (shared) facade. Each dwelling is entered via the side elevation, as part of a very three-dimensional composition.
The hipped roof is covered in slate and retains red brick chimneys with cement render cornices. The roof form is shared over the two dwellings, with no projecting party wall. Overall it is T-shaped in plan with a narrower front section surrounded by two return verandahs, and a semi-hexagonal hipped roof above the large canted bay window that spans most of the front facade. The eaves have brackets of a bold design and pierced holes set on a ground of red brick. The walls beneath the verandahs are of red brick with beltcourses of cream and black (tinted) bricks as well as cream bricks to the round-arched window and door openings. They are set on rock-faced bluestone foundations. The polychrome brickwork stands out against the cement-rendered sections around it.
The central canted bay window is a bold and highly modelled design feature. In contrast to the two wings that flank it, the walls are rendered, apart from the eaves. Windows to the ground floor have round-headed arches set between pilasters and below a moulded arch. Above the ground floor is a deeply moulded and dentilated cornice. Windows to the first floor have segmental arched heads and the associated mouldings and pilasters, plus a blind balustrade below each. The central window is also framed in full-height pilasters with Corinthian capitals.
To either side of the canted bay is a two-storey verandah. The verandahs terminate at the projecting rear wings, which are rendered. The verandahs each have a shallow convex roof and slender cast-iron columns and brackets used on both floors (with shorter first-floor columns). At ground floor level there is a rinceaux frieze within a chamfered timber frame. At the front corner is a cluster of three columns at each floor level, with an arched insert between them. No. 14 retains its original heavy floral cast-iron balustrade panels.
The two houses are highly intact, with the only alteration noted being the replacement of the first-floor balustrade cast-iron to no. 16. The retention of unpainted face brick is unusual among large Victorian houses in South Yarra. Both have modern rear extensions, but these are set well back and single-storey in form.
Both houses stand behind high modern fences, but are visible down wide driveways.
Duplex House - Local Historical Themes
This place illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, rev. 2009):
3.3.3 Speculators and land boomers
8.2 Middle-class suburbs and the suburban ideal
8.4.1 Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashion
8.4.2 Functional, eccentric & theatrical - experimentation & innovation in architecture
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A1
-
-
-
-
-
PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1467Victorian Heritage Register H1032
-
FORMER RECHABITE HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0575
-
FORMER RICHMOND POWER STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H1055
-
-