BERKELEY HALL
11 PRINCES STREET ST KILDA, PORT PHILLIP CITY

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Statement of Significance
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BERKELEY HALL - History
Berkeley Hall was built in 1854 for H.F. Gurner, a prominent member of the local community. It was designed by Albert Purchas, an early Melbourne architect, in the classical revival style. The owner of Berkeley Hall, Henry Field Gurner, was Melbourne's first Town Clerk and, after separation, the first Crown Solicitor of Victoria. After Gurner's death in 1883, Berkeley Hall passed out of private hands, eventually becoming reception rooms in the early twentieth century. The hall has been significantly altered since its construction, with very little of the original Georgian qualities remaining.
Source: Historic Buildings Preservation Coucil Act 1974.
Richard Peterson: "A Place of Sensuous Resort: Buildings of St Kilda and Their People", © 2005, St Kilda Historical Society Inc.:
Berkley Hall
11 Princes Street, St Kilda
Henry Field Gurner (1819-83) was an Australian, born in Sydney. On leaving school in 1834 he became a clerk to his father, a judge of the Supreme Court, worked for the Crown Solicitor and in 1841, was admitted as an attorney, solicitor and proctor in the Colony of New South Wales. His first position was Deputy-Registrar and Clerk of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, for the Port Philip District and so in May 1841, Gurner was the first attorney, solicitor and proctor admitted to the Bar in the six year old town of Melbourne. By January 1842, he became Clerk of the Peace and Crown Solicitor for the Colony of Port Phillip. He briefly acted as the first Town Clerk (chief executive officer) of the newly incorporated Town of Melbourne, in 1842. He remained Crown Solicitor of Victoria from its separation in 1851 until he retired in 1880.
Gurner was a great Australian patriot and developed a valuable collection of Australiana. As well as two legal textbooks, in 1876, he also wrote a Chronicle of Port Philip now the Colony of Victoria from 1770 to 1840. He was a member of the Melbourne Club from 1844 and its president in 1870. He married Augusta Mary Curr (1829-1917), a gentlewoman, the second daughter of Edward Curr, landowner, squatter, politician and 'controversialist'. Curr was one of very few Catholic gentlemen in the District of Port Philip, although both his daughters married Protestants.
Curr was one of the nominated six members of the first Legislative Council of Van Diemens Land in 1825, on its separation from New South Wales. As his family grew (nine sons and six daughters) he settled in Victoria in 1841, where he built the house St Helliers on the Yarra at Abbotsford, the next year. Georgina McCrae describes the Currs as her neighbours in February 1842.
Augusta Gurner was a fine horsewoman, known famously as the 'Lady in Grey'; a skilled huntress who cleared three and four-railed fences on her horse 'Major' in the tradition of Diana, the ancient wood-goddess. In Melbourne she was the only woman to ride the hunt with the Melbourne Hounds. Of their eight surviving children, Henry Edward and John Augustus were barristers, and the latter became Crown Prosecutor in Victoria.
The Gurners first lived in a two-storied house and a villa with a garden on the corner of William and Little Collins Street, today bounded at the rear by Gurners Lane. Ironically, in relation to Gurner's Melbourne Club connection, these houses were demolished to build the Australian Club on the site in 1879. A syndicate of Australian Club members was formed and their horse 'Gurners Lane' won both the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups in 1982. The name continues to be used by interests associated with The Australian Club.
Gurner bought land at the second sale of Crown Land at St Kilda. This was sections 27 and 28, giving him an 183 metre frontage to Grey Street. (F.G. Dalgety bought the adjacent similar blocks). In 1850, Gurner bought the adjacent block to the east, obtaining a similar frontage to Princes Street. (So did Dalgety, who also acquired a frontage to Barkly Street, later the site of Oberwyl). Gurner named the street put through his land Dalgety Street, and Dalgety named Gurner Street, penetrating his property. The land had been previously settled. The Black Plan of 1854 shows existing buildings on the site which were demolished to build Berkley Hall.
In 1854, the year of the Eureka Stockade, Gurner built his house on top of the hill, facing Princes Street. It had a view over Hobson's Bay. The architect was Albert Purchas. Later Purchas designed St George's Presbyterian Church, in Chapel Street, St Kilda (1877-80), his firm, Purchas and Teague, designed the Wool Exchange, 120 - 138 King Street, in 1913-14, and over 140 houses, offices, churches and cemetery buildings in Victoria between 1852 and 1909.
11 Princes Street is one of Purchas's first buildings. It was built in a sequence of stages. It was a large four-square Classical house, with a verandah on three sides, but quite close to Princes Street. It had four reception rooms, four bedrooms, store, pantries, larders, strongroom, brick stables, two coach houses and harness room, by 1917. It is known to have had difficulty in persuading the Yan Yean water supply to climb the hill, excepting only 'a trickle between one and five am'.
James Sinclair in Beauties of Victoria, an 1856 tourist booklet, evokes the scene: 'Nearly on the highest part of the hill of St Kilda, stands this gentlemen's spacious suburban residence, ... From the lofty verandah a fine view of the adjoining park of St Kilda, with the blue hills in the distance over-topping many a beautiful residence is obtained.' Frederick Revans Chapman, who lived in St Kilda from 1855 - 64, wrote in a letter: '... on the west side (of Princes Street) was Mr Gunner with a high fence to protect his front garden'.
After Gurner's death, Mrs H. F. Gurner was given as occupant of Berkeley Hall. It is
unclear to whom this refers. Not Augusta, she was off abroad. By 1892, 'John A. Gurner' is given as occupant, that is, Gurner's barrister son, John Augustus. By 1900, Augusta was ensconced back in residence, after her extended travels abroad. There was still no house built between Burnett Street and Dalgety Street. The redoubtable Augusta died in 1917.
The front rooms, and double-storied verandah were built after 1873, (they are not shown on the Vardy Plan of that year), but before the additions of 1897. By 1897, the MMBW plan shows Berkley Hall bounded by Dalgety Lane, with a large garden facing Dalgety Street, from which steps approach the side verandah. There is also a
garden on the south side, facing Princes Street. At the rear of the house are two large wings with a courtyard between.
The colonnaded verandah with Doric and Ionic column-pairs, with balconettes between at first floor level, is rather coarsely detailed and obscures the facades.
Technically interesting are the rare Morewood and Rogers galvanised iron roof tiles surviving on the stables. Wattle House also has them and they were only recently removed from Fenagh Cottage stables.
During a brief recall as Crown Solicitor, Gurner died, at the Melbourne Club. He left an estate £61,000. Augusta lived on for another 34 years, filling her widowhood with extensive travel. When she died in 1917, the house was auctioned. By then the property had reduced to 65.5 x 56.4 metres. It was bought by Mr and Mrs Balwin and when he died, Mr Gosling sold it to Mrs D.L. Speed in 1945, who named it Berkley Hall. It was converted to reception rooms, leaving only the drawing room relatively as the Gurners would have remembered it. In November 1999 it was auctioned for over $1.5million.
After the Wattle House and Eildon (as Barham House), Berkley Hall is the third oldest surviving substantial house in St Kilda. Berkley Hall is now offices for Abercrombie and Kent (Australia) Pty. Ltd.), 'Simply the best way to travel'.
Note: A proctor is a person managing cases in a civil court.
References
de Serville, Paul. Port Philip Gentlemen. Oxford University Press. Melbourne 1980. p191 & 202.
Goad, Philip. Melbourne Architecture. The Watermark Press. Sydney 1999. P 49.
Gurner, J.A.. Life's Panorama. Melbourne 1930. pp48, 49, 58-61.
Heritage Victoria. Victorian Heritage Register No.H491.
'H.F. Gurner'. Illustrated London News. 16 May, 1853. p74.
Lewis, Miles. (Architects' Index). Architectural Survey. Final Report. University of Melbourne,
Melbourne 1977. P 79.
Moore, H. 'South Suburban Melbourne, 1854-1864.' Victorian Historical Society Magazine. V. 4.
June, 1917. p185. (Includes letters of Frederick Revans Chapman.
National Trust of Australia (Victoria). File No. 1746.
Peterson, Richard. Brimstone to Bunyip. Churches of Collingwood, Clifton Hill and Abbotsford.
1852-1999. Collingwood Historical Society. Collingwood 1999, p 34.
RBA Architects with Bryce Raworth. The Australian Club. Conservation Plan. Melbourne 1997. P6 & 9.
Sands and McDougall. Directories. 1884, 1887, 1890, 1892, 1897, 1900, 1917 and 1920.
BERKELEY HALL - Plaque Citation
This is one of St Kilda's oldest houses, designed by the architect Albert Purchas and built in stages from 1854 for Henry Field Gurner, Victoria's first Crown Solicitor. The colonnaded verandah was added after 1917.
BERKELEY HALL - Permit Exemptions
General Exemptions:General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions. Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.Specific Exemptions:General Conditions: 1. All exempted alterations are to be planned and carried out in a manner which prevents damage to the fabric of the registered place or object. General Conditions: 2. Should it become apparent during further inspection or the carrying out of works that original or previously hidden or inaccessible details of the place or object are revealed which relate to the significance of the place or object, then the exemption covering such works shall cease and Heritage Victoria shall be notified as soon as possible. General Conditions: 3. If there is a conservation policy and plan all works shall be in accordance with it. Note: A Conservation Management Plan or a Heritage Action Plan provides guidance for the management of the heritage values associated with the site. It may not be necessary to obtain a heritage permit for certain works specified in the management plan. General Conditions: 4. Nothing in this determination prevents the Executive Director from amending or rescinding all or any of the permit exemptions. General Conditions: 5. Nothing in this determination exempts owners or their agents from the responsibility to seek relevant planning or building permits from the responsible authorities where applicable. Minor Works : Note: Any Minor Works that in the opinion of the Executive Director will not adversely affect the heritage significance of the place may be exempt from the permit requirements of the Heritage Act. A person proposing to undertake minor works may submit a proposal to the Executive Director. If the Executive Director is satisfied that the proposed works will not adversely affect the heritage values of the site, the applicant may be exempted from the requirement to obtain a heritage permit. If an applicant is uncertain whether a heritage permit is required, it is recommended that the permits co-ordinator be contacted.Painting of previously painted surfaces provided that preparation or painting does not remove evidence of any original paint or other decorative scheme.
Demolition or removal of non-original stud/partition walls, suspended ceilings or non-original wall linings, bathroom partitions and tiling, sanitary fixtures and fittings, kitchen wall tiling and equipment, lights, built-in cupboards, cubicle partitions and the like.
Removal or replacement of non-original door and window furniture including, hinges, locks, knobsets and sash lifts.
Removal of non-original tiling or concrete slabs in wet areas provided there is no damage to or alteration of original structure or fabric.
Installation, removal or replacement of ducted, hydronic or concealed radiant type heating provided that the installation does not damage existing skirtings and architraves, obscure architectural features and that the central plant is concealed.
Sensitive installation, removal or replacement of electrical wiring.
Removal or replacement of electric clocks, public address systems, detectors, alarms, emergency lights, exit signs, luminaires and the like on plaster surfaces.
Installation, removal or replacement of bulk insulation in the roof space.
Installation of plant within the roof space.
Sensitive installation of new fire hydrant services including sprinklers, fire doors and elements affixed to plaster surfaces.
BERKELEY HALL - Permit Exemption Policy
The purpose of the Permit Policy is to assist when considering or making decisions regarding works to the place. It is recommended that any proposed works be discussed with an officer of Heritage Victoria prior to a permit application. Discussing any proposed works will assist in answering any questions the owner may have and aid any decisions regarding works to the place. It is recommended that a Conservation Management Plan is undertaken to assist with the future management of the cultural significance of the place.
The extent of registration protects the whole site. The addition of new buildings to the site may impact upon the cultural heritage significance of the place and requires a permit. The purpose of this requirement is not to prevent any further development on this site, but to enable control of possible adverse impacts on heritage significance during that process.
All of the registered building is integral to the significance of the place and any external or internal alterations that impact on its significance are subject to permit application. The significance of the place lies in being one of St Kilda's grandest and oldest houses. The exterior is notable for the unusual colonnaded verandah, and the shutters on the ground floor windows. The servants' quarters and the stable, with its 1850s Morewood and Rogers tiles, are unusual survivors, and must be retained. The interior has been significantly altered as part of the conversion first to a reception centre and later to offices. However any original features, including the drawing room with its canted bay, the entrance hall and staircase, the cellar and its wine bins and the brick lined tank under the former courtyard should be retained.
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