Airlie
627 Malvern Road TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
'Airlie', at 627 Malvern Road, Toorak is significant. It was built c1889-90 for accountant Frank Rowley.
It is a two-storey Italianate villa with rendered masonry walls and an asymmetrical plan form incorporating a projecting bay to one side of a two-storey masonry arcaded verandah. It has a highly decorative central tower and its hipped roof is concealed by a balustraded parapet. The projecting bay incorporates a canted masonry loggia.
'Airlie's' presentation to the public realm, including setback from the street contributes to its significance.
The modern alterations and additions, such as the concrete paved carpark and contemporary side entrance, are not significant.
How is it significant?
'Airlie', at 627 Malvern Road, Toorak is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonington.
Why is it significant?
'Airlie', at 627 Malvern Road, Toorak is a distinguished and intact example of a prestigious and substantial Victorian residence built for middle-class residents of Toorak during the boom years of the 1880s and 1890s. The house adopts strong characteristic elements representative of the Italianate style, including the asymmetrical plan form, M-profile hipped roof (not visible from the street), arched windows, and classicising detail executed in cement render. It represents the extravagance and confidence of boom-era housing in the municipality shortly before the great crash and Depression of the 1890s. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, it is distinguished by the addition of a number of unusual elements, in particular the very creative two-storey canted bay in the form of a loggia, as well as the masonry arcaded verandah to both levels, the balustraded parapet, and the highly decorated central tower. The rendered finish combines good quality cast and run rendered cement details, including a highly ornate cornice below the parapet, Corinthian pilasters, vermiculated panels, and acanthus leaf imposts. (Criterion E)
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Airlie - Physical Description 1
The residence at 627 Malvern Road is a grand two-storey Italianate villa that occupies a deep allotment on the corner of Malvern Road and St John's Lane in Toorak. The building is set back from the street behind what was once a large garden which has been replaced by a modern car park.
Constructed c1889-90, the building is a notable example of the common late-Victorian two-storey asymmetrical Italianate villa, which in this instance employs a stepped projecting bay to one side of a two-storey arcaded loggia. The model is varied by the adoption of a large central tower and a balustraded parapet that conceals the building's hipped roof. The most unsual feature of the house is perhaps the second loggia to the left-hand side of the facade, which imitates the more typical two-storey canted bay window in an open form. The parapet has Classical turned balusters set between piers that have vermiculated panels. The cornice below is elaborate with a range of Classical details including modillions, dentilation, and festoons set between garlands. The elaborate parapet and cornice detail is continuous across the stepped and canted projecting bays to the front facade.
The masonry loggia to the other side of the facade is detailed with vermiculated panels, and Corinthian pilasters and an unusual unadorned arcaded balustrade to the first floor level. Openings, such as the round-arched front door, arched double-hung sash windows, and arches to the canted arcaded loggia feature a bold sawtooth pattern to their reveal, and the arches rest on linking impost mouldings of Acanthus leaves. Unusual projecting sill treatments are also incorporated to the canted bay loggia. Other openings beneath the canted loggia are square-headed full height which appear to accommodate pairs of French doors to each level. The elaborate four-panelled front door is highly intact retaining the decorative leaded glazing to the multi-light highlight and sidelights.
The arcaded loggia retains red and cream biscuit (paving) tiles to the ground floor.
The central tower is set back from the parapet line of the main building and features many of the Classical details incorporated in the main facade including Corinthian pilasters to the corners, Acanthus leaf impost mouldings to round-arched double-hung sash windows, and cornice detailing. Research undertaken to date has not uncovered the name of the house's designer, although the scale and quality of the building detail suggests the involvement of a fashionable architect or designer-builder.
The villa remains highly intact in terms of its presentation to the street, except for the loss of the front garden, that was still somewhat intact in the c1970s (although altered from the original extent of the estate, CUA c1970s) (see Figure 2Figure 2. 'Airlie' at 627 Malvern Road, Toorak c1970s (source: Committee for Urban Action collection, SLV).). A modest extension has been constructed to the western elevation which is set well back from the front of the building providing a new entrance to the dentist surgery that now occupies the building.
Airlie - 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
8.6.1 Sharing houses
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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PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1467Victorian Heritage Register H1032
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BARWONVictorian Heritage Register H0825
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