Residence
232 Kooyong Road TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The substantial double-storey Spanish Mission revival style house at 232 Kooyong Road, Toorak was designed by noted architect Cedric Ballanytne in 1927. It was built on land created from a subdivision of the nineteenth century Myrnong mansion estate. Sympathetic alterations and additions were made in 1937 to designs by architect Marcus Martin.
Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):
- The external form, materials and detailing of the building as originally built and extended in 1937.
- The generally high level of integrity of the exterior to its 1937 state.
- The domestic garden setting (but not the fabric of the garden).
Modern fabric, including the garage addition, does not contribute to the significance of the place.
How is it significant?
The house at 232 Kooyong Road, Toorak of local architectural significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
The house is architecturally significant as sophisticated and generally intact example the interwar Spanish Mission revival style (Criterion D).
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Residence - Physical Description 1
The house at 232 Kooyong Road is a substantial double-storey Spanish Mission revival style house, which is built on a sloping site so that it essentially presents as a single-storey building to the street. It has a hipped Cordova tiled roof with broad eaves and ornate chimneys with arched vents and Cordova tile capping. External walls are rendered with a rough trowelled finish. The picturesque asymmetrical Kooyong Road facade has projecting bay with a round arched opening to the front entry porch trimmed with 'ropework' moulding. The remainder of the facade is screen by a tall garden wall with a small arched timber gate providing access to a front courtyard. This aspect of the design is evocative of a walled Southern Californian mission compound.
The house remains largely intact externally apart a double car garage addition to the front, and the glazing-in of the original arcaded ground floor loggia and sleep out balcony at the north-west corner. The gate in the front garden wall was originally located near the garage but has been moved closer to the entry porch. The original plans show a gabled Cordova tiled awning over the entry porch, which no longer exists, or perhaps did not form part of the house as first built. The garage addition is reasonably prominent but it does not conceal key aspects of the facade. A second freestanding garage to the north of the house matches the size and location of the garage shown on the original Cedric Ballantyne plans.[1] The Marcus Martin additions were fairly modest in scope and blend in well with the house as originally designed by Cedric Ballantyne. The 1960s McGlashan Everist alterations are also largely sympathetic to the original character of the house, and, in any event, are largely concealed from the street by the original garden wall.
[1] MMBW Plan No. 58. Dated 5/12/1947. State Library of Victoria.
Residence - Local Historical Themes
The house at 232 Kooyong 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 grand 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 A). It also illustrates the role of large architect designed houses 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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