16 August 2025

A rather extraordinary Toorak mansion we learned about in archi school but I’d never seen irl until today – it’s in Kooyong Road just north of Toorak Rd, and called Glyn, built in 1908, designed by Rodney Alsop with terracotta roofs and gables everywhere, in fact it’s huge !

And the walls are plain but roughcast with very rounded pebbles, rather odd up close (underneath it’s all reinforced concrete, a then newish idea, and rarely used for houses).

I like the way some of the roofs meld into each other, and the tiled shallow roof/eave that runs all round. It’s almost on top of a hill and maybe had a bigger lot originally, so had great views in all directions. The style is very Arts & Crafts, part of trend by architects at the time, when typical houses were more elaborate Edwardian style.

It was sold in 2020, so we get to see inside – jeez all that timber work, the stairs, with built in lamps, the huge hall, the steppy plan, the not quite Art Nouveau details. And the 6 little bedrooms to one side, no doubt for the servants.

The house was built for Sir Edward Miller, ‘pastoralist and politician’, son on Henry ‘Money’ Miller, when he was about 60. The Miller family stayed in the house until the 1950s, and it doesn’t seem to have had any extensions, it was always big enough I guess.

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