5 August 2018:

Amongst all the Federation villas in Camberwell are a few 1880s mansions that once had huge grounds, and two of them almost match and were right next door to each other off Mont Albert Road ! Parlington (originally Veralum, pics 1,2,3) was built in 1888 for Mr Macintosh, and designed by #JamesGall who did a lot of the most elaborate #landboom era mansions – including Frognall (pics 4,5), built for Mr Hicks, local timber merchant, which was right next door about 200m away (see plan, Parlington on the left). It’s got the same staged section tower with the same top floor, the same arcaded porches, the same polygonal bays on each main face, but it’s a bit more ornate and the tower is taller; Mr Hicks must have said ‘I want the same but bigger’. They could’ve had shouted conversations from their towers. Both promptly lost their mansions when the bubble burst in the early 1890s. You can see Frognall from Mount Albert Road, still in large grounds, owned by the Air Force for ages; I have childhood memories of driving past but somehow I didn’t know about Parlington till I became an architectural historian, it’s much more visible off Parlington Street, which bends around it, and still has fairly large grounds. Only pics 2,3 are mine.

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