Back to search results »

Back to search page »

Nauroy

Location 159 Kooyong Road TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY Level Included in Heritage Overlay

[1/1] 159 Kooyong Road

Statement of Significance

What is significant?

'Nauroy', originally known as 'Bonaly' and later 'Chorlton', at 159 Kooyong Road, Toorak, is
significant. The house was built in 1897 for wealthy widow Annie Moira Younghusband. It
underwent renovations in 1903, under the direction of architect W.A.M. Blackett. Sucessive
owners were importer Richard Blackwell ('Chorlton') and Boer War and WWI-hero Major
General Edwin Tivey and then his daughter, Violet ('Nauroy').

It is a two-storey Italianate mansion-villa with rendered masonry walls and a slate-covered
hipped roof. The front facade is largely symmetrical, and is articulated by two shallow
breakfronts, each with a separate hipped roof. The house has a masonry corner porch, instead
of a verandah, and the porch and ground-floor facade are articulated with large triangular
pediments over openings.

The house is significant to its 1897-1903 fabric, including the external building envelope (walls
and roofscape), and particularly the east (front) and north elevations.

The modern alterations and additions, such as the garage on the south side, the bay window at
the rear of the north elevation and associated rear extension, and the high front masonry fence,
are not significant.

How is it significant?

'Nauroy', at 159 Kooyong Road, Toorak is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to
the City of Stonington.

Why is it significant?

'Nauroy' is of architectural significance as an intact example of the substantial dwellings
erected for Toorak's wealthy residents in the nineteenth century. It is a late example of the
Italianate style, with a Renaissance Revival influence. Characteristic Italianate elements include
the low M-profile hipped roof, bracketed eaves, segmentally arched windows, and window
architraves, quoining and stringcourses executed in cement render. (Criterion D)

Aesthetically, it is distinguished by its very solemn and solid appearance, in keeping with the
Renaissance Revival, created by the use of a masonry porch instead of cast-iron verandah, and
particularly by the classical aedicules defining the ground-floor windows and porch openings.
The aedicules exhibit a correct use of the classical orders, each pediment resting on two to four
slender Tuscan-order pilasters below a metope, and sitting on a plinth that wraps around the
base of the house. (Criterion E)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Villa