Articles from Australia
Belle Vue House 1864
by Malcolm Qualtrough
Click on photos for larger image.
The house at 237 (Later 44) Belle Vue Road Golden Square Bendigo was home to Henry Qualtrough and his wife Elsie.
Henry is descended from James Qualtrough born 1832, (Chart 22)
They raised seven children in the house. Eldest son Jack lived on the Porter Street side next door. Youngest son Alan built a house in 1960 on the top side.
The house is basically of five rooms. Note the positions of the chimneys and the curved wall in the corridor.
The early date of this cavitv wall construction house is enough to make it a house of considerable significance but Love's choice of a novel means of bonding the inner to the outer walls makes it of international significance in the history of building technology.
Cavity wall construction had been used since at least the early part of the nineteenth century in Britain. but it was not generally accepted by builders and architects until the 1920s.
Restoration writer Ian Fvans. stated that Australia’s first cavity brick walls are in buildings in the Victorian towns of Stawell and Bendigo. constructed by American architect R.A. Love during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Lewis has claimed for Love the distinction of being the architect of the first true cavity wall buildings in Victoria based on his work in Stawell.
This Bendigo example is five years earlier, but it is not however. the first known example in Bendigo. Earlier in 1864. Vahland and Getzschmann had built St Monica's Church in Kangaroo Flat with 100 mm cavities in the walls. They had bonded the walls at metre intervals by overlapping alternating header bricks from the inner and outer waIls. The construction was revealed when the church was demolished without a permit. The presence of the header bricks mitigated the effectiveness of the cavities to exclude moisture.
In the Lisle house. the front and side walls are about 275 mm thick with a 70 mm cavity. The inner and outer walls are tied using header bricks every second brick in every second course, providing a very secure bond.
It also allows air to circulate freely around each header brick. reducing the tendency for moisture to penetrate to the inside surface of the wall. It is possible that specially made header bricks were used to span the walls as one such brick was found in the garden, but this has not been confirmed by inspection. The closest known published bond is that of Loudon’s hollow wall which uses a cavity with Flemish bond.
The plan of the house is also a departure from the more common double front with central passage. Unusually the sharp corner in the passage has been rounded in recognition that it would be likely to be knocked. Love has given the doorways in the front rooms a classical treatment. He inserted non-opening timber panels which extended the architraves to almost 2.7 metres. which gave the door, when closed, the appearance of being very tall.
The front wall is of triple brick with cavity to give added depth to the entrance door and windows in a wav that characterizes several of Love's later residential buildings. His use of lonic capitals on the verandah posts is also characteristic of some of his later work. Some of the capitals have rotted and been replaced with replicas.
A photograph of the house with Mr and Mrs Lisle on the verandah shows three steps extending the full width of the verandah, in the manner Love later used at Colbinabbin and Stanhope homesteads. The steps no longer exist, so they were probably made from timber.
Love designed this house for Robert Lisle a successful mining manager and investor and a staunch member of the Golden Square Methodist Church.
Lisle was honorary clerk of works for the construction of the present church in 1872, so is likely that he took an active interest in the mode of construction of his own home. He died there in 1911.
The present owner has inserted a stainless steel damp course into the walls and made additions to the rear. but the original building remains essentially intact.
Reference: Robert Alexander Love - Goldfields Architect