Pattenbringan
7 Gawith Court TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
'Pattenbringan' at 7 Gawith Court, Toorak, is significant. It is a large, single-storey villa built in 1889-90 for Scottish banker Hugh Wilson and designed by notable Melbourne architectural firm, Reed, Henderson & Smart. The house originally fronted Heyington Place.
It is a long building with cement-rendered walls beneath a high slate-clad gable-hipped roof, with a projecting semi-hexagonal hipped roof bay to one side of the front facade and a gabled bay to the side facade, with a return verandah between them.
There is a fine set of wrought and cast-iron gates at the current vehicular entrance on Gawith Court. They may have been relocated from the original Heyington Place entrance, so would be significant.
The contemporary rear extension and the timber paling fence to Gawith Court are not significant.
How is it significant?
'Pattenbringan' is of local architectural, aesthetic and historical (associational) significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, 'Pattenbringan' demonstrates the transition from the Italianate to the Queen Anne Revival in the form of a sprawling suburban villa. The canted bay window, cement-rendered walls and verandah set below the eaves were all common for Italianate houses of the 1880s. Its gable-hipped roof, timber verandah detail and medieval gable treatment all belong to the innovative design that Reed, Henderson & Smart were known for in the 1880s, when they carried out many prestigious commissions in the cities of Stonnington and Boroondara. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, 'Pattenbringan' is particularly distinguished by the decorative treatment of the side gable, with a decorative truss with a pierced timber sunburst pattern above it and a turned pendant-finial, as well as a floating triangular pediment. The H-shaped margin glazing to the sash windows is also a very unusual feature. The cast and wrought-iron entrance gates are also of aesthetic significance for the high quality of their fabrication and the Aesthetic Movement influence of their design. (Criterion E)
It is also significant for its association with the Melbourne architectural firm of Reed, Henderson & Smart. It is an extremely long-lived and influential practice, beginning with the practice of Reed & Barnes in 1853 and still in existence today as Bates Smart. The practice was an important innovator in the introduction to and creation of the Queen Anne Revival style in Victoria from the early 1880s. 'Pattenbringan' illustrates another side of their work during the 1880s with unusual features including the rendered walls (as opposed to the more common red brick) and the sprawling bungalow form with its uncommon gable-hipped roof. (Criterion H)-
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Pattenbringan - Physical Description 1
The sprawling house at 7 Gawith Court, Toorak, stands on a large block of land which has been much reduced from its original boundaries as shown on the 1905 MMBW plan. The property once stretched to Heyington Place and the main facade faces this direction (north-east). This elevation is now obscured by a two-storey contemporary dwelling at 57 Heyington Place which sits in its former front garden. The property is now accessed via Gawith Court on the south side, which was created on another part of the original extensive gardens.
The walls of this single-storey house are finished with cement render and the complex roof is clad in slates. Chimneys are also rendered, with recessed vertical panels and modest run mouldings at the top and as a stringcourse. Most of the house sits beneath a high gabled-hipped roof with a long ridge. At the rear (south-west end), it terminates in a simple gable with a louvered vent. At its north-east end (the main facade) there is a lower projecting hip with a semi-hexagonal roof at its front (for a canted bay window).
A return verandah sits below the bracketed eaves of the front part of the house and stretches from this bay window around before terminating at a lower hipped roof extending from the rear half of the south-east elevation. This roof is punctuated by a projecting gable flanked by two tall chimneys. This gable has a decorative truss with a pierced timber sunburst pattern above it, and a turned pendant-finial. This is in contrast to the front gablet of the main roof which appears to have just a truss and pendant-finial and a large louvered vent.
The verandah roof is a hipped skillion clad in corrugated metal. It is supported on delicate turned timber posts. The verandah frieze and brackets have been removed, but their design is indicated by remnant fretted timber elements between paired posts at the corner of the verandah.
The front door sits below the verandah at the junction with the lower hipped roof on the south-east side. It has six panels, with bolection mouldings, and a highlight window.
The visible windows are double-hung timber sashes. The upper sashes have a segmental arch and H-shaped glazing bars. There is a triangular pediment of moulded cement render on a cushion frieze which sits above two windows in the gable to the south-east elevation.
When the house was sold in 1979, there was a description of internal features including a large entrance hall with a carved wooden mantelpiece and stained glass windows, a coffered ceiling of stained timber in the dining room, and a 'small room with an arched ceiling' (The Age, 12 May 1979:40).
There is a fine set of wrought and cast-iron gates at the current vehicular entrance on Gawith Court. The heavy posts are of timber with cast-iron caps, and the gates incorporate delicate cast-iron work with an Aesthetic Movement influence. They are high quality gates that date from the nineteenth century, so may be the original 'Pattenbringan' gates, seen on the 1905 MMBW plan on Heyington Place, since relocated.
Alterations include the loss of the timber verandah frieze and brackets. Aerial photos show that there is a new rear wing which sits beneath a separate hipped roof at the south-west end of the house. The house sits behind a high timber paling fence which obscures views to much of it.
Pattenbringan - Local Historical Themes
This place illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, rev. 2009):
8.1.2 Seats of the mighty - Mansion estates in the nineteenth century
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: A2
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