Meldrum House (former)

The former Meldrum House at 35 Labassa Grove, Caulfield North, is an attic-storey Arts & Crafts bungalow of ashlar stone construction with fish-scale slate roof. It has a prominent gabled façade to Labassa Grove, incorporating bracketed eaves and projecting porch with Tuscan columns and dentillated cornice, and glass-walled sunroom, dormer windows and corner balcony to Inkerman Road. Erected in 1917-18, the house was designed by architect William Meldrum (longtime associate of Charles D’Ebro and brother of artist Max Meldrum) for his own use.
The significant fabric is defined as the exterior of the entire house.

The house satisfies the following criteria for inclusion on the heritage overlay schedule to the City of Glen Eira planning scheme:

The former Meldrum House is significant as an idiosyncratic example of an early Arts & Crafts bungalow. While its attic-storeyed form, prominent gabled frontage, dormer windows, bracketed eaves and shingled infill are wholly typical of that emerging aesthetic, the use of fish-scale roof slates, ashlar stone construction and overt classical references in the projecting front porch (in antis Tuscan columns and dentillated cornice) are particularly rare and unusual. While use of feature stonework became more common in later bungalows, examples entirely of stone construction would remain exceptional well into the 1920s and beyond. Demonstrating a high degree of creative achievement, the sophistication of the design testifies to the fact that it was an architect’s own home. Sited on a prominent corner block, the house remains an eye-catching and unusual element in the predominantly interwar streetscape. (Criterion E; Criterion F)