Residence
61 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 house at 61 St Georges Road, Toorak was built c1933 to designs by noted architect Robert Bell Hamilton. The property was created from a subdivision of the nineteenth century mansion estate 'The Towers'.
Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include (but are not limited to):
-The original external form, materials and detailing of the building.
-The generally high level of external intactness.
-The unpainted state of the face brick and terracotta elements.
-The domestic garden setting (but not the fabric of the garden itself).
- The front fence and gate.
How is it significant?
The house at 61 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 handsome and largely intact interwar residence blending Georgian revival formality with picturesque elements of the English Domestic Revival and Mediterranean idioms (Criterion E). It demonstrates architect Robert Bell Hamilton's talent for residential design across a range of fashionable interwar styles.
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Residence - Physical Description 1
The building at 61 St Georges Road is a substantial and handsomely designed double-storey house sited to the rear of a large, attractive garden. The house has a hipped terracotta shingle tiled roof and rendered masonry walls with chimneys and an arcaded loggia in clinker brick providing an interesting variation in texture and colour. Stylistically, the house has a Georgian revival character infused with picturesque aspects of the English Domestic Revival and Mediterranean idioms. The porte cochere on the west elevation and elegant bowed windows are characteristic of the Georgian revival style, as are shuttered multi-pane sash windows. Georgian formality is tempered by the house's irregular massing and clinker brick accents typical of the English Domestic Revival idiom. A Palladian motif archway on the front balcony is broadly suggestive of the Mediterranean style. The property also has an elaborate wrought iron driveway gate with carefully detailed piers and curved wing walls constructed from a thin clinker brick. The piers are surmounted by carriage lamps. The driveway entrance and front fence appear to be contemporary with the house.
The house was recently renovated and extended and provided with a basement level garage.[1] Extensive landscaping works, including a new pool, are also understood to have been carried out. The changes to the house and grounds do not appear to have diminished the integrity of the original design.
[1] www.acpaulconstructions.com.au/project3.html
Residence - Local Historical Themes
The house at 61 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 subdivisions of Toorak's grand mansion estates were developed as prestigious residential enclaves (TEH 8.1.3 The end of an era - mansion estate subdivisions in the twentieth century). The place also illustrates the role of grand architect designed houses as symbols of wealth, status and taste for Melbourne's middle and 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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