Residence
81 St Georges Road TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
Note that the relevant HERCON criteria are shown in brackets.
What is Significant?
The large double-storey English Domestic Revival style house at 81 St Georges Road, Toorak was built c1934 on land subdivided from the grounds of the nineteenth century mansion Glenbervie. The house was constructed by, and possibly also designed by, prestige builders Dickson and Yorston.
Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):
- The original external form, materials and detailing.
- The unpainted state of the brick and terracotta elements.
- The high level of external intactness.
- The legibility of the original built form in views from the public realm.
- The domestic garden setting (but not the fabric of the garden itself).
- The undeveloped front setback.
- The low height brick front fence.
Modern fabric, including the garage door and rear additions, is not significant.
How is it significant?
The house at 81 St Georges Road, Toorak is of local architectural significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
The house is architecturally significant as a fine and largely intact example of an interwar English Domestic Revival style house with a distinctive turreted facade (Criterion D).
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Residence - Physical Description 1
The building at 81 St Georges Road is a substantial double-storey house in the English Domestic Revival style. It has clinker brick walls and a transverse gabled terracotta tiled roof punctuated by simply detailed brick chimneys. The picturesque asymmetrically composed facade has a central octagonal entry tower surmounted by a 'candle snuffer' roof with terracotta shingle tiles. The fall of land allows the house to have a low level driveway and garage below the house's ground floor. The half-timbered oriel window above the garage accentuates the house's romantic Old English character. The sash windows with diamond pattern leadlight glazing are also characteristic of the style. Bricks are typically laid in a plain stretcher bond apart from the dog-toothed solider course forming the entry tower cornice. The facade is otherwise notably restrained in its use of ornament.
The house appears to be substantially intact insofar as it presents to the street. The only apparent changes are the modern metal garage door and a single-pane fixed sash ground floor window (presumably replacing leadlight glazing). Recent aerial photographs of the site appear to show a double-storey rear addition but this is concealed in views from the street.
Residence - Local Historical Themes
The house at 81 St Georges Road, Toorak illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, 2006):
8.1.3 The end of an era - mansion estate subdivisions in the twentieth century
8.4.1 Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashion
The house is of some historical interest as evidence of a major phase of development that took place in the 1920s and 1930s when many of Toorak's nineteenth century mansion estates were subdivided to create prestigious residential enclaves (TEH 8.1.3 The end of an era - mansion estate subdivisions in the twentieth century). It also illustrates the role of houses generally, and Old English style houses in particular, as symbols of wealth, status and taste for Melbourne's upper classes of the interwar period (TEH 8.4.1 - Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashion).
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Interwar Houses Study
Author: Bryce Raworth Pty Ltd
Year: 2014
Grading: A2
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