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, Mr Gosling sold it to Mrs D.L. Speed in 1945.
It was a large four-square classical house, with a verandah on three sides, but 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, 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.
1854 Henry F Gurner built his house on top of the hill, facing Princes Street, and with a view over Hobson's Bay. 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 1873 Vardy Plan shows a relatively small L shaped house with a verandah on the two main sides, on the uphill portion of a large block bounded by Princes, Dalgety, and Dalgety Lane.
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 rear wings. 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.
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 had been subdivided, and the property had reduced to 65.5 x 56.4 metres.
In 1917 It was bought by Mr and Mrs Balwin, who are thought to have then replaced the verandah with the currrent colonnaded verandah with Doric and Ionic column-pairs, with balconettes between, at first floor level. This has rather squat proportions typical of the period, and obscures the original facades.
In 1945 it was sold it to Mrs D.L. Speed , who named it Berkeley Hall (confudingly since the house adjacent in the corner of Burnett Street was called Berkeley Court). The house 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 Mansiosn Databse record 641