Gladswood House (Glenyarrah / Seaford) – 11 Gladswood Gardens – Double Bay – NSW

Gladswood House (Glenyarrah / Seaford) – 11 Gladswood Gardens Double Bay – NSW

Gothic Revival sandstone marine villa William Munro c.186064 · Joseland interiors 1913 · Standing — apartments (SHR #00496)

On the point between the two arms of Double Bay, a perpendicular Gothic pile once commanded the ridge beside Italianate Redleaf. Samuel Deane Gordons Glenyarrah became flour-miller John Spencer Brunton’s Gladswood, then a guest house, then strata. The harbour relationship thinned with the 1927 subdivision, but Munro’s stone, Lyon & Cottier glass, and Joseland’s baronial joinery still read as one of Woollahras rare colonial-Gothic survivors.

At a glance

• Address: 11 Gladswood Gardens, Double Bay NSW 2028 (Woollahra)
• Other names: Glenyarrah; Seaford House (WHHS / early directories)
• Traditional Custodians: Cadigal / Eora (SHR Aboriginal notes for Double Bay)
• Land: Point Piper Estate (Piper 1820 → Cooper & Levy 1826 → Sir Daniel Cooper); 99-year lease to E.T. Beilby from 1 Oct 1856 (65 p.a.; 2,000 building covenant); lease to Hon. Samuel Deane Gordon MLC 8 Jan 1858 for £800 (SHR)
• Built: tenders from 1860; substantially complete by 1862; gate pillars Aug 1864 naming Glenyarrah (SHR)
• Architect: William Munro (tender notices); possibly J.F. Hilly (WHHS alternate); R.G. Howard Joseland (1913 refurbishment / dining–ballroom); J.A. Dobson (1938 western wing / multiple occupancy)
• Style: Picturesque / perpendicular Gothic Revival sandstone marine villa
• Heritage: NSW SHR #00496 (gazetted 2 Apr 1999; PCO from 22 Apr 1988); Register of the National Estate; Woollahra LEP
• Fate / current use: Standing strata apartments (SP 58597); stone stables survive as residence at 21 Gladswood Gardens (SHR)

Site & setting

Cadigal harbour Country on the Double Bay point of the old Point Piper Estate. Original holding a little over 3 acres, entered from New South Head Road through stone gate pillars (late 1864); lodge (demolished), drive, fernery, stone pier and timber boat house once tied the house to the bay (Eric Bayliss c.1875 view cited on SHR). 1927 subdivision into fourteen allotments created Gladswood Gardens and cut the landmark curtilage; Brunton bought back Lot 5 (pier access) in 1935. Remnant retaining walls and pier sections survive mainly on neighbouring northern land (SHR). Nothing of the original landscaped grounds of Gladswood remains intact on the house lot (SHR).

Timeline

• 1820 / 1826 – Piper grant; Cooper & Levy acquire Point Piper Estate (SHR).
• 1 Oct 1856 / May 1857 – Beilby 99-year lease (3 a. 3 r. 39 p.); building covenant 2,000 within eight years (SHR).
• 8 Jan 1858 – Lease to Samuel Deane Gordon for 800 (SHR).
• 186062 Munro tenders (joinery, painting, masons/carpenters); house in course of erection (SHR).
• Aug 1864 – Tenders for gate pillars at Glenyarrah, Double Bay (SHR). Name often glossed valley of the gums (Griffiths via SHR).
• c.186364 – William Walker rated / temporary occupation while neighbouring Redleaf built (Griffiths tradition on SHR) soft.
• c.1875 Lyon & Cottier stained glass (Flora/Pomona; Gordon monogram & motto in deo fiducia est mia) (SHR).
• 1882 – Gordon dies; daughter Jessie Maria Gordon; sub-let F.B. Lark 188385 (SHR).
• 18851913 Thomas Hussey Kelly Sr. (wool-broker) lease then freehold May 1901; son Thomas Herbert Kelly occupies; foreshore strip bought 1909 (SHR).
• 29 Dec 1913 – Sold to John Spencer Brunton (Brunton & Co. flour); renamed Gladswood after Berwickshire seat; Joseland works (3,800 permit 24 Nov 1913) dining/ballroom wing, baronial interiors (SHR).
• 1927–28 – Sold to Maas estate agents for subdivision; Brunton re-purchases dwelling; Gladswood Gardens locality appears (SHR).
• 193739 Brunton dies; sons sell to builder F.L. Perini; Dobson western wing for multiple occupancy; guest-house lease to Gwendoline Jean Von Tidermann (SHR).
• 195188 – Guest house / private hotel under successive owners (SHR).
• c.1990 Coronet Investments apartments west of house (Domain note on SHR).
• 2 Apr 1999 – SHR listing.
• Today – Strata apartments; restored fabric noted by WHHS (SHR citations).

Architecture & interiors

Two-storey sandstone Gothic asymmetrical harbour-side plan at variance with textbook pointed-Gothic axial types (SHR). Northern verandah with stone pillars and timber Gothic arches substantially in 1862 form; Joseland tessellated tiles and lanterns later (SHR). Entry vestibule Lyon & Cottier glass; Brunton carved Brunton / Gladswood” in flagging under the mat (SHR). 1913 Joseland dining room/ballroom: ornamental plaster ceilings, carved timber fireplace, oak sideboard with stained-glass Victoria/NSW arms; study with embossed copper three-link cable” Brunton ancestry motifs and motto carving (SHR). 1938 western wing (Dobson) judged of little significance on CMP — modern castellated Gothic at odds with picturesque original (SHR). First floor heavily altered by hotel bathrooms and partitions (SHR).

People & anecdotes

Samuel Deane Gordon — letter-carrier turned wine merchant, MLC, St Andrew’s College associate with Munro; Horticultural/Agricultural Society links may explain Flora/Pomona glass (SHR). William Walker next door at Redleaf the Double Bay Italianate/Gothic twin skyline of the 1870s Bayliss panoramas. T.H. Kelly freehold and foreshore purchase locked the marine villa to the bay before subdivision. John Spencer Brunton and Howard Joseland remade the interiors as a Scottish-baronial statement; Joseland’s daughter later married Brunton’s son (SHR). Guest-house decades kept the shell standing when peers fell.

What stands today

Gladswood stands as private strata apartments at 11 Gladswood Gardens. Admire from Gladswood Gardens and distant harbour views; do not enter private grounds. Pair with neighbouring Redleaf (Woollahra Council Chambers) and Fairwater / Elaine along Seven Shillings Beach.

Sources & further reading

• NSW SHR — Gladswood House (#00496, DB 5045709): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045709
• McGauran Soon Pty Ltd, Conservation Study / Conservation Plan, Gladswood House (1994 / 2003) cited on SHR
• Woollahra History & Heritage Society Gladswood / Gladswood Gardens notes (2010, 2013) cited on SHR
• Register of the National Estate listing (21 Mar 1978) referenced on SHR
• Wikipedia — Gladswood House
• Trove search Glenyarrah Double Bay; Gladswood Brunton; Munro architect Double Bay

Related on this blog

• Redleaf Double Bay (Woollahra Council) this batch
• Fairwater / Elaine Seven Shillings Beach drafts
• Lindesay / Carthona / Swifts — eastern Gothic peers
• Redleaf Wahroonga — different house (Joseland Federation villa)

Redleaf (Woollahra Council Chambers) – 536 New South Head Road – Double Bay – NSW

Redleaf (Woollahra Council Chambers) – 536 New South Head Road — Double Bay – NSW

(Not Redleaf Wahroonga — different house, different s uburb, different century of Federation fabric)

Victorian Italianate harbourside mansion — George Allen Mansfield 1863 · Standing — Woollahra Municipal Council Chambers + Blackburn Gardens / Redleaf Pool · Local heritage (LEP #212)

William Benjamin Walkers Italianate seat on Seven Shillings Beach became the civic front door of Woollahra: Council chambers in the villa, library in St Brigid’s, formal Blackburn Gardens stepping to a tidal pool. Where almost every peer along this shore stayed private or fell to flats, Redleaf was reconsolidated for the public — and that is why the mid-Victorian mansion, gates, Moreton Bay fig and Bunya still frame the Double Bay foreshore.

At a glance

• Address: 536 New South Head Road, Double Bay NSW 2028 (Woollahra Council Chambers)
• Traditional Custodians: Cadigal / Eora (inventory Aboriginal notes)
• Built: 1863 for William Benjamin Walker (lease endorsement: 2,000 expended on first-class building by 7 Nov 1863) (inventory)
• Architect: George Allen Mansfield (SMH tender Oct 1862 for villa at Double Bay; Woollahra fast facts). Inventory also notes a possible role for J.F. Hilly
• Style: Mid-Victorian Italianate sandstone mansion with terraced Italianate grounds to the harbour
• Early occupants after Walker: H.C. Dangar (while altering Grantham); Hon. William Busby; Frederic Lassetter; later Dixson / Sir William Cooper / W.H. Mackay (inventory / fast facts)

Civic chapter: Woollahra Council purchase 1940; RAAF/WAAAF occupation 1942–46; Council Chambers from Aug 1947; St Brigid’s library from 1950s; Blackburn Gardens 1955; Redleaf Pool 1941 (opened by Premier McKell)

Heritage: Woollahra LEP #212 (23 May 2015) — house, interiors, gates, gateposts, Moreton Bay Fig, Bunya Pine (and related landscape). Not SHR

Fate / current use: Standing — Council chambers/offices; public gardens; Redleaf Pool; Allen Jack + Cottier / Design 5 conservation + underground offices 1999–2001

Site & setting

Lot 13 of Point Piper Estate on the ridge between the Double Bay arms, looking north between Clark Island and Bradleys Head. Stone terraces, dry-stone walls, flights of steps and a hierarchy of formal upper lawn, steeper bank, and wilder foreshore scrub once structured the Italianate garden (Woore watercolours 1877; Bayliss c.1875 — inventory). St Brigid’s (1897) was built in the south-east corner under Lassetter ownership; 1912–13 split Redleaf from St Brigid’s; Council resumptions 1943–51 reunited the foreshore for public bathing and civic use (inventory). Neighbours historically include Gladswood/Glenyarrah, Elaine, and Fairwater along Seven Shillings Beach.

Timeline

• 1853–62 – Cooper trustees lease Lots 10/13; Dillon / Cheeke assignments; 26 Aug 1862 Lot 13 leased to W.B. Walker (inventory).
• Oct 1862 / 1863 – Mansfield tender; Walker occupies Redleaf by late 1863 (after temporary stay at neighbouring Seaford/Glenyarrah per Griffiths — inventory). Name Redleaf in Sands by 1871 (inventory).
• 1860s – Seven Shillings Beach tradition: Gurrah’s fishing rights bought for seven shillings by Mrs Walker (CMP anecdote on inventory).
• Oct 1872 – Lease assigned to Hon. William Busby for 7,000; Busby family chapter to 1891 (inventory).
• 1889–1911 – Occupancy then leasehold/freehold of retailer Frederic Lassetter; St Brigid’s built 1897; freehold from Coopers 1905 (inventory).
• 1912–13 – Subdivision: Redleaf to T.S. Dixson; St Brigid’s (with former stables) separate (inventory).
• 1918–39 – W.H. Mackay ownership; dies at Redleaf Dec 1939 (inventory).
• 1940 – Woollahra Council purchases Redleaf to protect Seven Shillings Beach foreshore and build public bathing (inventory / fast facts).
• 29 Nov 1941 – Redleaf Pool opened by Premier W. McKell (inventory).
• Feb 1942 — Jul 1946 – RAAF / WAAAF accommodation (inventory / fast facts).

11 Aug 1947 – First Council meeting at Redleaf (inventory).

1951 – Full resumption of St Brigid’s; title reconsolidated (inventory).

1955 – Blackburn Gardens opened; municipal library moves into St Brigid’s 1957 (inventory).

1960s–80s – Office additions (later partly reversed); pool controversies and restoration 1987–88 (inventory).

19992001 – Conservation of villa + new subterranean Council offices (Allen Jack + Cottier; Design 5; landscape Tom Sitta) (inventory).

Today – Civic harbour estate: chambers, gardens, pool, library.

Architecture & interiors

Dressed sandstone ashlar Italianate villa with quoins, bracketed eaves, slate roof; reconstructed verandahs to east/north/west after removal of 1960s office accretions (inventory). Original room arrangement substantially intact despite twentieth-century alterations; fine stonemasonry, plasterwork and joinery called out in significance statement (inventory). Bas-relief hall panels traditionally associated with Busby’s Italian imports (Griffiths via inventory). Service wings south in rendered brick; c.1910 first-floor junction visible (inventory). Landscape significance: mature figs and araucarias, remnant woody pear (Xylomelum pyriforme) near the pool bank, gates and gateposts (inventory).

People & anecdotes

William Benjamin Walker — “merchant prince,” Legislative Council 1863–67, founding commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron; named the house after his parents’ English Redleaf (Wikipedia / fast facts). William Busby outgrew Edgecliffe House and bought the harbour terrace; Frederic Lassetter made it a retail dynasty seat and added St Brigid’s for the next generation. Civic punchline: Council bought a mansion to save a beach, then moved the town hall into the drawing rooms. Pool associations later include Olympic swimmer Murray Rose, coach Sam Herford, administrator Arthur Tunstall (significance statement).

What stands today

Redleaf stands as Woollahra Council Chambers. Blackburn Gardens and Redleaf Pool are public; chambers access follows Council/public-meeting rules. Pair with Gladswood, Elaine, and Fairwater. Not to be confused with Redleaf, Wahroonga.

Sources & further reading

• Heritage NSW inventory — “RedleafWoollahra Council Chambers… (DB 2711246; LEP #212): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2711246
• Design 5, Redleaf Conservation Management Plan (May 2004) — cited on inventory
• Woollahra Municipal Council — Local history fast facts – R (Redleaf): https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-history/Local-history-fast-facts/R
• Wikipedia — Redleaf; William Walker (NSW colonial politician)

Related on this blog

• Redleaf – Wahroonga — different house
• Gladswood House / Elaine / Fairwater
• Grantham Potts Point — H.C. Dangar temporary Redleaf link