Mombah (former)

The Old English Domestic Revival house at 9 Widford Street, Hawthorn East, is significant. Constructed in 1930, the house was designed and lived in by prominent Victorian engineer and architect A.C. Leith of Leith & Bartlett.

 

Later additions including the rear extension and garage are not significant. The front fence brick posts and footings are original, but the rock-faced boundary wall is not original.

The house at 9 Widford Street, Hawthorn East is of local aesthetic and associative significance to the City of Boroondara.

The house is an outstanding and distinctive example of interwar Old English Domestic Revival design with distinguished individual architect-designed elements. The house is architecturally significant as an example of A.C. Leith’s domestic architecture in the City of Boroondara. The house derives its aesthetic appeal from the steep dominant shingle tile roof form, asymmetrically placed front gable, and front porch resolved to a turret that is characteristic of Old English Revival style. The rounded porch includes turned timber balusters characteristic of Old English Revival buildings. The barge boards reminiscent of cruck-framed houses and use of timber frames and brick nogging in the rounded bay also evoke Old English Revival. The house incorporates elements Moderne design, notably the round porthole window and streamline chimney. The house’s architectural distinction and modern interpretation of domestic revival styles popular in the interwar period make its unique (Criterion E).

 

The house is significant for its association with prominent architect and engineer Arthur Cedric (A.C.) Leith who designed the house as his own residence and lived there for a significant period of his career in Victoria. (Criterion H)