October 2026
Always another Victorian mansion to discover – Carrigal in Mason Street Hawthorn is pretty speccy, with turrets and tall chimneys, lashings of polychrome brickwork, including some diamond shaped bricks, and quatrefoil wrought iron. I think the other side is just as good or better, with a corner tower, but now has a building up close to it. The fence is pretty good too.
Existing research is pretty unclear, but seems like it was built (or enlarged) in 1868 for brewer Thomas Lambert , and the architect was Leonard Flanagan. That date puts it exactly contemporary with the ‘first’ fully polychrome designs in Victoria, namely St Michael’s in Collins Street, completed by 1867 (pic 13), and the long demolished Euro Reno mansion in St Kilda, 1866 (14). They’re both by Joseph Reed who is credited with introducing/inventing the style, which got super popular by the 1880s. But then there’s also another house in St Kilda that’s also 1868 by George Johnson (15), so either they immediately copied Reed or it was already in the air…
The mansion originally had frontages to three streets and extensive gardens, and later went through a few hands. Then bits subdivided off maybe in the 30s, then becoming a guest house then rooming house, losing the top of the turret at some point.
In 1986 the local Baptist Church started managing the property, and built the wing on the other side and restored the verandah (there’s an old pics looks 50s, and a blurry pic dated 1991). Now called Servants Community Housing, they still manage it along with 3 other places.
