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Villa Alba
44 Walmer Street KEW, Boroondara City
Walmer Street Precinct, Kew

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Boroondara City
City of Kew Urban Conservation Study 1988
City of Kew Urban Conservation Study 1988
City of Kew Urban Conservation Study 1988
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Statement of Significance

HO158 Walmer Street Precinct, Kew

The Walmer Street Precinct, Kew, is an area of heritage significance for the following reasons:

-The place contains a series of individually significant mansion houses which all represent different but accomplished facets of nineteenth and early twentieth century architectural design.

-Studley Park Road, Walmer and Nolan Streets are all dominated by these mansions, though Walmer Street in particular has a line of Victorian and Federation houses that were developed alongside the mansions and which play an important supporting role in the precinct.

- Generally, the streets within the area adjoin either parkland or large school garden spaces, providing a distinctive parkland character to the area.

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    • Physical Description 1

      Villa Alba - Physical Description 1

      Documentary evidence from Kew Rate Books records that 'Studley Villa' (now known as 'Villa Alba') was built for William Greenlaw, banker and speculator [2 ]. The initial N.A.V. for the property was £100 [3 ] while in February 1884 an increase in the N.A.V.to £300 [4 ] indicated that the 1882-83 alterations and additions to the southern part of the house [5 ] were completed. The decorative scheme for the interior was carried out by Patterson Brothers of Melbourne in 1884 [6 ].

      Greenlaw owned and occupied the house until his death in 1895 [7 ] and in 1949 the building was purchased by the Royal Women's Hospital who convened it into a nurses home [8 ]. The descrintion given by the Australian Heritage Commission citation is repeated here in pan: '...Exterior is quite plain and little altered. Main feature of the house is lavish interior decoration completed 1883/84 by Paterson Bros. (leading Melbourne decorator). A house containing one of the most complete and elegant decorative schemes of the 1880s.

      References --

      1 Bennett, K., 'The Villa Alba', January 1987

      2 National Trust of Aust(Vic), 'Borough of Kew Rate Records..., held in File No.1385

      3 ibid.

      4 ibid.

      5 National Estate, 'Listing for Kew City - Villa Alba', as at 23 January !987

      6 National Trust of Aust(Vic), 'Building Citation', 7 February !985

      7 Rogers, D., A History of Kew, p.101

      8 ibid., p.102

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Boroondara - City of Kew Urban Conservation Study

      Author: Pru Sanderson Design Pty Ltd
      Year: 1988
      Grading: A

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