Haddon Hall

405 Toorak Road, Toorak

Haddon Hall, as designed by Robert B. Hamilton and constructed in 1931-2, is significant. The significant attributes are the Old English style form, materials and detailing of the flats, front and side brick fences, the garden setback to Toorak Road with semi-circular driveway.

The high level of external intactness and wide range of decorative and quirky detailing that is typical of Hamilton including uniquely designed screen doors with inset panels, the bracket with name plate and light fittings etc. are integral to the significance of the place.

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Historically, it is significant as one of the first examples of the Luxury flat type designed by Robert Hamilton and represents his prototype of maisonettes designed to resemble a large single-family home that he would use in his subsequent developments. Hamilton was a pioneer of maisonette developments, which were promoted as a practical alternative to a detached house and was the forerunner of the post-war townhouse.

Architecturally, Haddon Hall is significant as a highly accomplished and externally intact example of inter-war flats designed in the Old English style. Details such as the fine brickwork and fachwerk, massive corbelled chimneys, and entrance gates with silhouette panels and lanterns, as well as its setting with a curved drive and original brick fence all contribute to its significance.

Also for its association with Robert Hamilton, Victoria's foremost practitioner of the inter-war Old English style.

• Victorian Heritage Register

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Kings Lynn

280 Williams Road, Toorak

Two storey inter-war 'Old English' style maisonettes, Haddon Hall, at 405 Toorak Road Toorak, was erected in 1931-32 to a design by P.J. O'Connor, architect.

• Very intact. Significant features include the building, random stone with tile coping on the front and side boundary fence and garages at rear.​

• Architects to use corner towers in the 1930s to mark the staircase included Gawler and Drummond, Stuart Hill and A.W. Plaisted.

• (Individually significant in HO155)
   

Muyunata

26 Kensington Road, South Yarra 
designed by Arthur W. Plaisted and constructed in 1936, is significant. The significant attributes are the Old English style form, materials and detailing of the flats as designed by Plaisted.

Architecturally and aesthetically, Muyanata Flats is a good example of the flat designs of architect Arthur Plaisted, who is known for his mastery of many different styles in his inter-war designs and is particularly noted as a pre-eminent designer of Old English style flats. The flats are distinguished by the attention to detail and unusual use of rough, rustic finishes to add authenticity to the Medieval design.

• Victorian Heritage Register

• Heritage Citation Report

Stonehaven

692 Orrong Road, Toorak, Stonnington City
Luxury flats by Robert Hamilton

• A fine example of the Old English style

• A luxury design by Robert Hamilton

While 'Luxury' flats in Stonnington were designed by a number of architects Robert B. Hamilton appears to have been the pre-eminent designer of luxury flats in Toorak and South Yarra - Sawyer (1982:68) cites a 1938 article in the RVIA Journal where Hamilton pointed out that there was demand in the South Yarra district for flats 'which provide accommodation for more affluent residents'.

Throughout the 1930s Hamilton would design at least 11 flat developments in Toorak and South Yarra. Most of them fit within the category of luxury flats. Three of his known flat developments - Park Manor (built c.1935), Stonehaven (c.1933-35) and Denby Dale (c.1938) are currently listed in the HO and four more were assessed by the Residential Flats 2012 study.

• Victorian Heritage Register

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Taunton

520 Toorak Road, Toorak

Taunton, designed by Robert B. Hamilton and Associates and constructed in 1936, is significant. The significant attributes are the Old English style form, materials and detailing of the flats, low brick garden walls, garage and front fence and lych gate, and the garden setting. The high level of external intactness and wide range of decorative and quirky detailing that is typical of Hamilton including uniquely designed screen doors with inset panels, the grotesques to the lych gate etc. are integral to the significance of the place.

Architecturally, Taunton is a highly accomplished and externally intact example of interwar flats designed in the Old English style. Aesthetically, the flats are distinguished by their skillful modulation of roof forms, projecting bays, window types and cladding materials to break up a long building and create the sense of an intimate Medieval village. Details of particular note include the Japanese-influenced lych gate with carved grotesques, and the rare use of terracotta roof shingles and hung tiles. Also for its association with Robert Hamilton, Victoria's foremost practitioner of the inter-war Old English style.

• Victorian Heritage Register

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Westerfield

72-118 Robinsons Road, Frankston South

Westerfield is architecturally significant as an example of the rural retreats built by Melbourne's wealthiest families in the 1920s. It is an outstanding example of an innovative Arts and Crafts style house and garden, designed in 1924 by the prominent Melbourne architect Harold Desbrowe Annear, who was a leader of the Arts and Crafts movement in Victoria. It is among the most intact of his houses, and retains many original features, including the built-in furniture and door fittings.

Westerfield is historically significant for its association with Sir Russell Grimwade, a man of extraordinary diversity, active in some of Australia's largest and most enterprising business concerns, particularly in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and prominent in such bodies as the National Museum and the University of Melbourne. Grimwade was an early advocate for nature conservation, and had a great interest in native plants and their cultivation.

Westerfield was a 45 hectare property purchased in 1920 by Russell and Mabel Grimwade as a farm and rural retreat, in an area which became popular in the 1920s for the holiday houses of Melbourne's most prominent families.

• Russell Grimwade (1879-1955) was one of Australia's outstanding industrialists, scientists and philanthropists. He was trained in science, was chairman of numerous chemical companies, including the family pharmaceutical business, Felton Grimwade & Co, which later became Drug Houses of Australia, and of the Victorian Board of Scientific and Industrial Research. His interests included arboriculture, carpentry, photography and forestry, and he was an enthusiast for native plants who published an Anthology of Eucalypts in 1920.

• At Westerfield he began to plant what became a collection of more than fifty species of gums, as well as acres of lavender and roses, from which oil was distilled.

A house designed by the fashionable Melbourne architect Harold Desbrowe Annear was built at Westerfield in 1924. Nearby was a terraced lawn, a garden and pergola, probably also designed by Annear, an orchard and vegetable garden, and a timber windmill (now demolished) designed to generate electricity for the house.

• An area of natural bushland east of the house was retained.

• With the onset of World War II Australia's supply of many essential plant-derived drugs was cut off, and Grimwade, with the aid of the Federal Government, obtained seed from England and cultivated at Westerfield crops of poppies, foxgloves, deadly nightshade, henbane and colchicum.

• He constructed a drying shed, and with the resources of the family firm's laboratories developed extraction techniques to produce many of the drugs essential for Australia's war effort.

• The poppy seed grown at Westerfield was distributed to farms around Australia, and was able to satisfy all of Australia's morphine requirements until after the war. Grimwade was knighted in 1950. The property was sold and subdivided after his death.

The Westerfield estate is now on 14 hectares and incorporates a house, garden, paddocks, dam and bushland.

• The two storey Arts and Crafts style house has ground floor walls of uncoursed locally-quarried granite rubble and a half timber and stucco upper floor.

• The plan is unconventional with three wings radiating out from a central stair hall. The house has no corridors, and many rooms have unusual shapes.

• The interior is remarkably intact, with many original details such as built-in furniture and door furniture. Much use was made of stained timber, for floors, skirtings, architraves, doors and built-in cupboards, but some is now painted white.

• A small timbered tower containing a water tank rises from the centre of the cement-tiled roof. In the angle between two wings is an east-facing semicircular porch, now glassed in, axially aligned to the main garden path. Above the porch is a balustraded deck, intended as a lookout towards Westernport Bay. To the south of the house are a caretaker's cottage and a garage.

The landscape still reflects the original design, with distinct but integrated features.

• Victorian Heritage Register

• Australian Heritage Register