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St Cyr

Location

10 William Street SOUTH YARRA, STONNINGTON CITY

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
'St Cyr' at 10 William Street, South Yarra, is significant. It was built by owner and builder Henry Everest, who constructed a row of four brick houses of varying designs (two others survive at 14 & 16 William Street). This house was built in 1876-77.

It is two-storey Italianate villa with rendered masonry walls and a slate-clad hip roof with bracketed eaves. The verandah is arcaded at the ground floor with segmentally arched openings framed in engaged pilasters. At first-floor level is a masonry balustrade, above which are cast-iron posts and brackets.

The house retains two early outbuildings at the rear, which are also significant, each with a gabled roof clad in slate. At the south-east corner is the two-storey stable with rendered walls and a parapeted gable front.

The high masonry front fence and the c.1960s additions to the house are not significant.

How is it significant?
'St Cyr' is of local architectural and aesthetic significance, rarity value, and historical interest, to the City of Stonnington.

Why is it significant?
Architecturally, 'St Cyr' is a fine and intact example of a prestigious and substantial Victorian residence as were built in the highest and most salubrious areas of Stonnington's suburbs. It is Italianate in style, with characteristic features including the M-profile hipped roof, clad in slate, with corniced verandahs, segmentally arched windows with hood moulds, and classicising detail executed in cement render. (Criterion D)

Aesthetically, it is distinguished by its cement render detail and arcaded verandah form, with broad segmental arches to the ground floor decorated with incised geometric details and inset barely-twist colonnettes at corners, and a pierced guilloche pattern to the first-floor verandah with delicate cast iron, creating a very elegant composition. (Criterion E)

The early outbuildings at the rear are significant as rare surviving outbuildings, which were once seen behind every substantial house. The gable-fronted building in the south-east corner in particular is a rare example of a nineteenth century stable in Stonnington, which illustrates the importance that horse-drawn transport once had, and also indicates the high status of this residence in requiring its own stable. (Criterion B)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Mansion