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Rathmore; Rokeby

Other Names

Rathmore , Rokeby

Location

78 Athelstan Road CAMBERWELL, Boroondara City

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

[1/1]
Review of B Graded Buildings

Statement of Significance

Rokeby at 78 Althestan Road, Camberwell, is of municipal significance. Rokeby is an early and externally relatively intact example of a mature Federation design and is one of a relatively small group of houses that announced Federation architecture's complete arrival in the domestic sphere. Rokeby's site placement, angled corner bay, and placement of a pyramidal roof form punctuated by projecting sitting room and dining room bays, is a clear and mature reflection of the external massing that would mark the Federation period. Its pinwheel placement of rooms around a central hall became thoroughly characteristic of internal planning in the Federation period. Rokeby is quite closeto the seminal Federation plans by Alfred Dunn and Beverley Ussher of 1889-1892.

The house also has a directness that presages later moves around Australia toward simpler bungalow composition. The sitting room bay canopy is unusual in Victoria in its combination of scalloped window hood and brackets, and the roof bracket to the north east corner predates a later bungalow characteristic. In general the design is rich in its combination of form and materials, yet plain and vigorously executed, externally.

Group