Wynduk House
1310 High Street MALVERN, Stonnington City
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
'Wynduk' at 1310 High Street, Malvern is significant. It was built in 1891 for merchant Samuel Bloomfield. It was once one of a row of substantial single-storey late Victorian villas erected in the late 1880s and early 1890s along this prestigious part of High Street, opposite the Malvern Town Hall and Malvern Cricket Ground. It served as a family home, before it was purchased by the Brigidine Sisters in 1967 to become part of the former Brigidine Girls' School, Kildara College.
It comprises a substantial single-storey Italianate villa of rendered masonry with a hipped roof clad in slate and chimneys with heavy rendered cornices. It presents a symmetrical facade to High Street comprising two projecting canted bays and an encircling verandah which returns on both sides of the house. It is set back behind a generous front garden with a pre-1910 circular path, and is significantly intact as viewed and appreciated from High Street.
It is significant to the extent of its nineteenth century external form and fabric.
The modern additions to the rear and the front picket fence are not significant.
How is it significant?
'Wynduk' at 1310 High Street, Malvern is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, 'Wynduk' at 1310 High Street, Malvern, is a fine representative example of a substantial single-storey Italianate villa, built for upper middle-class residents of Malvern during the boom years of the 1880s and early 1890s. 'Wynduk' is the last remaining house of a row of prominently located late nineteenth-century single-storey villas along High Street, that serves as a reminder of the early substantial residential character dating from the boom era in this part of Malvern. Its association with the land boom and crash is highlighted by its brief association with Benjamin Fink. The house adopts a symmetrical Italianate plan and a hipped slate roof with a pair of canted bays to the front linked by an encircling cast-iron verandah. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, 'Wynduk' is distinguished by its bullnose verandah that not only encircles the pair of canted bays to the front but also returns along both side elevations. The cast-iron work is of a high quality which utilises a range of floral and shield motifs within the intricate frieze, bracket, and dropper patterns and cast columns with wrapped vine work. The walls are rendered above a bluestone base, with a finely executed stringcourse of acanthus leaves and cast-cement garlands set between paired eaves brackets above the verandah. It is a highly intact example within the municipality retaining its tessellated floor tiles contained by a bluestone verandah plinth, decorative urns flanking the front steps and the original or early garden layout including the circular front path. (Criterion E)
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Wynduk House - Physical Description 1
'Wynduk' is a substantial single storey Italianate villa that is highly intact. It occupies an allotment on the south side of High Street mid block between Glenferrie Road and Dalny Street in Malvern. The house is set back from High Street on a relatively deep allotment behind a sympathetic reproduction timber picket fence and a generous front garden. A long driveway down the west side of the property would have one provided access to the stables complex (demolished, now car parking).
Constructed in 1891 the building presents a symmetrical facade to the street with two canted bays to the front with an encircling bullnose verandah that returns on three sides. The hipped roof is clad in slate with two visible cement rendered chimneys with cornices that are typical of the style. The eaves are highly decorated above the corrugated iron verandah with paired eaves brackets set between garlands. The verandah is notable for its elaborate cast-iron work including the intricate frieze with matching droppers and brackets, and columns wound with vine work. The lacework utilises a range of flora and shield motifs and dentil mouldings to the timber verandah beam adds to the composition. The verandah is raised on a bluestone plinth that contains tessellated tiling which may be original.
The walls are rendered above a bluestone base, with a finely executed stringcourse of acanthus leaves. Windows to the projecting bays are set between projecting piers with deeply moulded sills. The front door retains its elaborate timber surround of fielded panels and fine leaded sidelights surmounted by spiral colonnette consoles.
Despite an extension to the rear, the house is substantially intact as viewed and appreciated from High Street. It retains its original, or early, garden layout including the urns that flank the front steps and a circular front path. Other changes include the painting of the cement render, new aluminium framed windows to original openings in the west side elevation (c2004) and the construction of a modest single-storey addition to the rear, beyond the projecting bay to the west side that contains the return verandah.
Wynduk House - 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
8.2.1 'Country in the city' - Suburban development in Malvern before WWI
8.4.1 Houses as a symbol of wealth, status and fashion
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A2Stonnington - City of Malvern Heritage Study
Author: Nigel Lewis and Richard Aitken P/L
Year: 1992
Grading: A2
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STONINGTONVictorian Heritage Register H1608
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MALVERN TRAM DEPOTVictorian Heritage Register H0910
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FORMER ES&A BANKVictorian Heritage Register H1691
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