A large house built in the Renaissance Revival style for Thomas and Margaret Alston c1863. It was later used as a boarding house for St Michael's Grammar School students known as St Margarets from 1918 to 1964, then demolished.
Braemar (demolished) 54-58 Barkly St
- Date Built: c1863
- Demolished: 1964
- First European Land Owner:
1845 Crown land sale Allotment sale to J Anderson in area between Barkly Street and Brighton Road https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/parish
1873 Vardy Map NW5 listed in area Alma Barkly Inkerman High and Chapel Street House Number 17 Indexed as owned by J Alston https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/vardy-plans
- Owners and occupiers:
Thomas and Margaret Alston
Emilie Margaret King
St Michaels Grammar School
- Description:
A restrained two storey Classical style house, featuring a single level Tuscan columned varandah across the front that projected one bay to each side. It was well set back from Barkly Street behind a circular lawn, located on the northern uphill half of a triple block. In 1912 an upper level was added to the verandah, with Ionic columns and a classical balustrade.
- History:
c1863 Built for Thomas and Margaret Alston. Thomas Alston was partner in Alston & Brown, silk mercers, & director of various companies, bought the site in Barkly St on 28 October 1864 (or 63?), and built a two storey Italianate mansion which he called Braemar.
A photograph of the house of Thomas Alston was among those sent in 1873 to the Vienna Exhibition illustrating palatial homes of the borough (The History of St Kilda, i, p 233. Raggatt)
Margaret Alston died at Braemar in 1905 and Thomas in 1907.
The property passed to their children, and then on 16 January 1912 to Emilie Margaret King. The house was renamed Karkoola and a second storey verandah added. It was then offered at auction in 1918.
Presumably it did not sell, and subsequently it was offered as a gift it to St Michaels Grammar, a girls school located nearby on Chapel Street. They used it as a boarding house called St Margaret's until 1964.
It was then sold, and demolished for the construction of thee blocks of flats at 54-8 Barkly St.
- Gallery:
- Sources:
Melbourne Mansions Data Base 3332 & 7126
St Kilda Historical Society. (2019, August). St Kilda's Lost Mansions: Braemar 56 Barkly Street, St Kilda. St Kilda Times, (228), 9 - 10. Retrieved from https://stkildahistory.org.au/news-and-events/newsletters
S&M 1863 (1st entry) Alston, Thomas, Waterloo St, St Kilda
S&M 1866 Alston, Thomas, Waterloo St, (north side bet Barkly St & High St)
S&M 1867, 1875 Alston, Thomas, Barkly St (east side bet Alma St west & Waterloo St)
S&M 1885 Alston, Thomas. 'Braemar' Barkly St, St Kilda, (east side bet Alma St west & Waterloo St)
S&M 1895, 1900 Alston, Thomas, JP, 'Braemar', 56 Barkly St, St Kilda S&M 1910 Alston, Miss Elizabeth, 56 Barkly St, St Kilda
S&M 1914 King, Selwyn [Resident Sec, Mercantile Mutual Insurance Co Ltd], 'Karcoola' , 56 Barkly St, St Kilda.
Allan Willingham, 'Marylea Flats' (former Alston villa), 3-5 High Street, Mordialloc, Melbourne, 2002, pp 12-15
MU Archives, Sydney Arnold & Co real estate leaflet collection, book Feb 1918 - Feb 1920, p 79. Auction 15 Oct 1918 leaflet a/c Mrs E M King,sale of 'Karcoola', 56 Barkly St, St Kilda, 2 storey house with masonry columned ver & balc. There is further scope for improvement & Messrs Oakden & Ballantyne have plans & can furnish full particulars of the building.
Peel, St Michael's Grammar School, pp 87-9. House offered as gift by Mrs Selwyn King to St Michael's school. Became a boarding school; sold in 1964 & demolished.
- Compiled by: Peter Johnson and Sally Moore, 2021; images added Rohan Storey May 2026
