Paris ‘style’ in Toorak

30 December 2024

I posted a pic of this curiosity in 2018, saying I’d seen the plans about 1994, but couldn’t believe they were serious, so vaguely surprised when I saw it for real ! Not only is it rather literal ‘Parisian’, it’s got rather too much mansard roof, and it’s squeezed down a narrow side street behind Toorak Village (it face both Canterbury Rd and Ross St). I got a lot of comments on Facebook ranging from ghastly and cheap to not bad actually. Now I’d say that the detailing is relatively well done, fairly deep and solid looking, the roof actual copper (though pre-patina’d), and why not French in a suburb full of revival styles ? And better than the grey boxes squeezing tiny flats in by the dozen. I also see that the Ross St side has 4 floors below the mansards, so has better proportions (the other side still just looks weird).

Now that I look at real estate ads, I also see it’s got a huge courtyard, very frenchy too with gravel and conifers and those box hedges that later became ubiquitous (conc pavers not stone though). They’re luxury flats in that they’re very spacious, but rather lacking in much notable frenchy character, though I can see one rococo mirror. And there’s two penthouses that are gigantic behind the top mansards. Still, it is a rather odd choice, but I guess immediately appealing to anyone who hasn’t actually spent much time in Paris.

(One comment also said the corridors inside were rather spooky; narrow, long, mirrored, and with ghostly piped music).