Repost this day 2018:

The house I grew up in, 58 Broadway, Camberwell. That was my attic bedroom window. A street of all Edwardian villas developed between 1900 and 1915, only one 30s house, now replaced. Leafy eastern suburbs, I guess I didn’t realise how privileged we were but back then, it was just an unfashionable old house. Dad bought it without telling mum in 1968, she was aghast, it was three flats, many neighbours were elderly, there were 3 nursing homes, she was going to pull out the windows (!), but she started buying Victorian furniture instead, it was cheap then. Mum even got in decorators to do the dining room ‘antique style’, with limes timber and patterned wallpaper.

We had a 60s tall paling fence and a rockery in the front garden, and the side verandah was glazed in. All the woodwork on all the houses was white.

We sold in 1988 and the next owners doubled it in size, even moved the staircase, but they did restore the front beautifully.

I love that #artnouveau #leadlight pattern with the hearts and whiplash motif. The street was #heritagelisted in I think 1986, and research for the 1991 review I see now shows that the architect was #RMGutheridge, and it was built for Henrietta Flockart. I think that it’s one of best streets of Edwardian villas in the country, though Appian Way in Burwood in Sydney has more interesting houses.

8 August 2025

Recently found an album of photos she must have commissioned of the interiors, the bright red front hall wallpaper, the green in the dining room, various Edwardian and Victorian pieces and lights, she even put old grates back in the fireplaces. (On the other hand my younger brother’s room was done in geometric dark jewell colours, pretty wild).

Also found a copy of an early photo of the house from a Flockart descendant. And the 1988 sale brochure with layout; the next owners made it much bigger, as in the sale plan from 2021, by which time only the front two rooms were left more or less intact.

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