A red brick Italianate mansion with Queen Anne features, built in 1888. The side is visible from Bundalohn Court, while the main front is behind flats facing Tennyson Street
1855 Kearney Map - site unoccupied. Land still crown land, Blessington Street Gardens vacant land https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/kearney-1
1857 Prahran Parish Map (Identifying Crown Land Allotments from 1845 onwards) Map ID 83 - ownership W Powell. See adjacent mansion Woodlands for information on W Powell. Blessington Gardens Marked as a Reserve. https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/parish
1873 Vardy Map South Ward Sheet 5 Allottment 61 - in the name of I Witney, nearest next residence E Brett (Corinella). Woodlands subdivided after this map https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/vardy-plans
1890's c1900 MMDB Record 30 for Bundalohn St Kilda, also record 347 for another Bundalohn in the Dandenongs.
Reed, Henderson & Smart
Original owner Henry Gyles Turner.
After 1920, William Darbyshire, who lived in one of the five flats the house was divided into.
A large house in typical Italianate form, with a projecting bay to the south, and a tower marking the entrance on the north. The style shows the influence of the Queen Anne, in plain red brick, with few decorative flourishes. The two level timber verandah that once graced the south west corner was the most stylish feature, with simple timber framing, and a ground level that was enclosed by elaborate timber-framed multi-paned windows and panelling. The stairhall inside is largely original, with an impressive fireplace, panelled polished timber dado and doors, and stencilled wall decoration.
Interior (2021):
{gallery}Bundalohn renovations interior{/gallery}
Henry Giles Turner was born in England in 1831, headed for Melbourne 1854, and worked for the Bank of Australasia. In 1870, he became the general manager of Commercial Bank of Australia. In 1887, Turner and his wife, Helen Ramsay (also from England), bought land in Tennyson Street and built the Bundalohn property. In his lifetime, Henry Turner held the position of president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, trusteeship of the public library and National gallery, and the St Kilda Cemetery Trust. He also wrote a number of books, including one entitled, A History of the Colony of Victoria. His wife Helen was involved with various charities, such as the St Kilda Benevolent Society. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/turner-henry-gyles-4760
The book Victoria's Representative Men at Home was published in 1905 and includes Henry and his wife Helen at home - cluttered and rather dark by contemporary standards no doubt!
After Henry died in 1920, the property was sold and sub-divided. The sub-division included Bundalohn Court on the immdeiate north side of the house. The house itself was converted into five flats. The new owner, William Darbyshire lived in one of the flats. It was not substantially altered except for the removal of the verandah on the south west corner.
In the 1960s the house was converted into a motel, with a large plain addition taking up much of the garden, and hiding the front of the house. In 2021, that addition was replaced with a new block, physically separated from the house, and together they serve as social housing.
Victoria's Representative Men at Home, 1905, Punch, Lauerdale Folio format reproduction limited editions SKHS
"Bundalohn revealed.", St Kilda Historical Society Newsletter. (June 2020). St Kilda Times, (231), 3.