17 July 2025

The Gables, on Finch Street Malvern, quite an appropriate name ! It was built in 1902, designed by Ussher & Kemp who has pretty much invented what we now call the Edwardian style a few years earlier, with all those gables, turned timber verandahs and marseille tiles.

This was the largest early house and lot in the Gascoigne estate, mostly developed 1900-1915, and has been a function venue since the 1940s.

Finch Street has some other interesting variations on the Edwardian, and one that looks almost Victorian, don’t know the date. My photos 2018, interiors from various Facebook posts, original sketch @library_vic.

11 September 2025

This is just one block of Finch Street, East Malvern, part of the Gascoigne Estate. It was subdivided in 1885, but hardly anything was built before the 1890s depression- then it really took off after 1900, just when the new Edwardian style really took hold.

In fact it was right here that the style was developed, when architects Ussher & Kemp did 6 houses in a row in 1899 (the ones not in direct sun). They set the pattern of red brick walls, tall hip red tile roofs out of which many gables poked, usually with half timbering, lead light windows with art nouveau coloured glass, attic rooms with former windows, and timber fretwork verandahs.

This area has always been well off, and I see that a lot of residents went full Edwardian for their front fences since the 80s, with quite a few lych gates, Im sure a lot more than originally. It’s such a pretty street, especially with the huge plane trees overhead.

23 September 2025

More East Malvern prettiness, the northern half of Finch Street. The houses are all Edwardian, and kind of similar, with red brick, red tiled roofs and timber verandahs, but all different too. There’s a few that probably date from closer to WWI, getting simpler, with some Bungalow influence. One great original red brick fence, and an amusingly ruinous picket one. There’s quite a few interwar houses as well, I liked the Tudor one, and there’s one contemporary house that’s sort of trying to fit in, but a red tile roof would have helped. It’s all part of the Gascoigne Estate, which has been heritage listed since the 80s I think. Oh I think the 3rd last one was around the corner.

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