House
31 Studley Park Road KEW, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The residence at 31 Studley Park Road, Kew built in 1936-37 for Michael Chamberlin from designs by Harry John James, is significant to the City of Boroondara.
How is it significant?
The residence is of architectural, aesthetic and associative significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
31 Studley Park Road is a fine and highly intact example of an interwar domestic residence in the Free Classical style. The dwelling is a representative example of the classical idioms developed during the interwar period for owners that had the means to adopt emerging styles and thus create a home that reflected their social status. Features were applied sparingly and with effect for its location on a prominent thoroughfare of Boroondara. (Criterion D)
The details of square pilasters, motifs within the gable and feature entrance with rounded opening, pediment and ziggurat-like parapet combine successfully to display the variety of the Free Classical style, uniquely applied to a single-storey dwelling. Its setting is enhanced by the retention of the original garage. (Criterion E)
The residence is significant as the home of Sir Michael Chamberlin, businessman, Catholic layman and a valued member of the Kew community. In his early life, he joined the Public Works Department, was seconded to the State War Council during World War I, before moving to the Department of Public Health. Chamberlin served as director and chairman of the National Trustees, Executors & Agency Co. of Australasia Ltd and a member and sometime chairman of St Vincent's Hospital advisory committee, where a lecture theatre is named is his honour. As a leader and advocate for education he was appointed to the founding council of Monash University and kept an interest in Mannix College, where the library is named in his honour. He was knighted in 1964 and was later appointed Knight in the Order of Pius in recognition for his work with the Catholic Church. (Criterion H)
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House - Physical Description 1
The subject site is a single-storey interwar Free Classical styled domestic dwelling situated within its own grounds. The residence is set back in the site on the southern side of Studley Park Road, facing north. The dwelling is symmetrically massed through the roof form and double gable that addresses the street. The building features a pedimented entrance, various classical details and a circular and rectangular motif within each of the gables of the primary facade.
The roof is of hipped and gabled form, with similar scaled pairs of gables to the north and east and the hipped roof rising above, all clad in original concrete Marseille pattern tiles. Two chimneys are visible from the street, one within the more northern east gable and the other sitting to the rear of the western north gable. Both chimneys are rendered with simple stepped architrave details.
The primary street facing facade, although symmetrically composed, is treated differently either side of the central embellished entry. This central entrance protrudes from the recessed bay, between the two gables, with the stately pediment and curved corbel brackets sitting atop the rounded architrave of the opening. Above the opening, the parapet steps back towards the edges and appears ziggurat-like in form. The front gable to the west features a canted bay window, each with a timber framed double-hung sash windows with architrave and flat parapet above. Within the upper gable sits an 'O' rendered relief, like a rose window or vent detail, however entirely decorative. The adjacent gable again is broken into three partitions; however, this time is separated by four square pilasters with extended capitals, and windows between. A stringcourse splits the upper gable, where sits a rectangular motif, again rendered but another point of difference to the western gable. The elevations to the east and west are more simply detailed, generally with no window or facade adornment.
An original hipped single car garage runs in the alignment of the eastern boundary. The front fence was a later addition by Margaret and Frank Verduci in 1988, the second and only other occupiers of the residence.
Of interest are the tall pine trees running the length of the southern boundary to both nos. 27 & 29 Studley Park Road, a remnant intervention undertaken during the 1930s subdivision of the Field Place estate. These trees however appear on the Field Place site.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study Volume 4: Kew
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Significant
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