A landmark house, dominated by an Edwardian double level classical verandah of c1917. This wraps around a restrained classical house from the later 1870s, itself an extension to or replacement of a house of 1854 by Purchas & Teague.
In 1846, H F Gurner bought two blocks at the second sale of Crown Land at St Kilda. This was sections 27 and 28, giving him an 183 metre frontage to Grey Street.F G Dalgety bought the adjacent two. Gurner named the street put through his land Dalgety Street, and Dalgety named the one through his Gurner Street.
1853, the 12 acres (4.85 hectares) of 'Dalgety’s Paddock' was subdivided and auctioned. (See source SKHS Place of Sensuous Resort https://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/).
Gurner retained ownership of the part of the block between Burnett and Dalgety facing Princes Street.
1854 house by Albert Purchas of Purchas & Teague, one of his first buildings.
1854 first stage or first house built for Henry F Gurner.
Following Henry Gurner's occupied by his son John A. Gurner and then Henry Gurner's widow Augustus, until her death in 1917.
In 1917 It was bought by Mr and Mrs Balwin and when he died in 1925, Mr Gosling sold it to Mrs D.L. Speed in 1945.
It is a large four-square classical house, with a verandah on three sides, built quite close to Princes Street. By 1917 the house had four reception rooms, four bedrooms, a store, pantries, larders, strongroom, brick stables, two coach houses and a harness room.
Beauties of Victoria, a tourist booklet from c1856, evokes the scene: ‘Nearly on the highest part of the hill of St Kilda, stands this gentleman’s spacious suburban residence, ... From the lofty verandah a fine view of the adjoining park of St Kilda, with the blue hills in the distance over-topping many a beautiful residence is obtained.’ Frederick Revans Chapman, who lived in St Kilda from 1855 - 64, wrote in a letter: ‘... on the west side (of Princes Street) was Mr Gurner with a high fence to protect his front garden’.
By 1897, the MMBW plan shows Berkley Hall bounded by Dalgety Lane, with a large garden facing Dalgety Street, from which steps approach the side verandah. There is also a garden on the south side, facing Princes Street. At the rear of the house are two large wings with a courtyard between.
The colonnaded verandah with Doric and Ionic column-pairs, with balconettes between at first floor level, is rather coarsely detailed and obscures the original facades. At the rear of the house are two large wings with a courtyard between. The entrance was from Princes Street to stairs up to the verandah on the downhill side.
Henry F Gurner was the original purchaser in the late 1840s of the blocks that he subdivided and sold in 1853, creating Dalgety Street, and keeping a lot on Princes Street for himself. The next year he built his house there, on top of the hill. Gurner was a great Australian patriot and developed a valuable collection of Australiana. As well as two legal textbooks, in 1876 he also wrote a Chronicle of Port Philip now the Colony of Victoria from 1770 to 1840. He was a member of the Melbourne Club from 1844 and its president in 1870. He married Augusta Mary Curr (1829-1917), a gentlewoman, the second daughter of Edward Curr, landowner, squatter, politician and ‘controversialist’. It is known to have had difficulty persuading the Yan Yean water supply to make its way up the hill, receiving only a trickle between one and five each morning.
The 1854 Alexander Black plan shows a relatively small house with no verandah, which appears to have been expanded and verandahs added by the 1873 Vardy plan, as well as adding a lot from the east next door.
By 1897, the MMBW plan shows Berkley Hall as a larger house on a square plan, closer to Princes Street, with a verandah on three sides, and a second rear wing. A watercolour from 1899 of Princes Street shows what is probably this house, a simple square two storey design with a single storey verandah with simple early Victorian timber trim. The Airspy photo of c1925 confirms this general form.
Following Henry Gurner's death a Mrs H F Gurner was the occupant (an unknown relation), followed by his son John A. Gurner. Then in 1900, after an extened trip abroad, Henry Gurner's widow Augustus was in residence until her death in 1917. By then the lot to the north on the corner of Dalgety Street had been subdivided off, and the property had reduced to 65.5 x 56.4 metres.
In 1917 it was bought by Mr and Mrs Baldwin, who named it Erlingford, and who advertised it as residental flats. It was likely they who built the currrent colonnaded verandah. The date of the Airspy photo is between 1922 and 1927, so this verandah must have been added after 1922, but Mr Bladwin died in 1925 so did not enjoy it for long.
In 1945 it was sold it to Mrs D.L. Speed, who named it Berkeley Hall (or Court). From at least 1949 it operated as a reception centre, with many wedding parties advertised for the newly renamed house.
At some point it was sold again, and has been used as offices since at least the 1970s, and remains much as it was after the addition of the verandah.
The history of Berkley Hall is well documented by Richard Peterson in Book A Place of Sensuous Resort http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/27.htm and http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/26.htm
Melbourne Mansions Database record 641 http://www.skhs.org.au/SKHSbuildings/26.htm