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City Living: Neometro residents and works | Rob & Isabella
Wisteria spills across the facade of Rob and Isabella’s South Melbourne townhouse—a quiet, elegant shift from their former life in Toorak. Designed for adaptability and ease, Bank Street has given them city connection and coastal escape in equal measure. “We’ve got the best of both worlds.”
The facade of Bank Street is a place to stop and stare. Wisteria, in a colour somewhere between magenta and purple, has fallen everywhere, and it’s a glorious sight. It is also an excellent example of how high amenity contemporary architecture can coexist with the charming Victorian residences of South Melbourne.
This is Rob and Isabella’s home. Their townhouse is one of a small row of four that extends to an early twentieth-century building, which now houses a cafe. The townhouses have a character that simplifies without being simple, in concrete, timber and red brick, a reference to the character of the adjoining hall and shop.
Rob and Isabella are the quintessential downsizers. With their kids out of home, they bought off the plan in 2010 and moved here from their Victorian-style house in Toorak.
Bank Street is highly functional, with space and storage where necessary, making the inefficiency of much larger traditional homes, like their former address, seem archaic.
“The biggest shift [in downsizing] was getting rid of all the Victorian furniture; all our parents’ and grandparents’ stuff,” says Rob. “We moved it all up to our farm, but our neighbour bought us out up there too!”
Timber framed, louvred windows and deep balconies send copious amounts of light through the kitchen and living room, even on this cloudy day. On the ground floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom work like a second wing, providing both flexibility and privacy that at the time challenged the norm but have since become it. This is a home that can adapt to life’s changes. There will always be a bed for family, but should the moment strike, there’s the house on the coast to escape the city.
With some timely windfalls, Rob and Isabella were able to create the lifestyle they wanted.
“We’ve got the best of both worlds,” says Rob. “This was such an excellent transition for us. We have the inner-city, but we’ve been spending time at our place in Shoreham too.”
Isabella has just decided to retire. “I’m having my last day next week. We have grandkids now and it’s feeling right. I might concentrate on golf or something like that,” she says, laughing.
Bobby acknowledges us at the front door as we all walk out into the street—he’s more of a companion than a guard dog these days. Outside, the piles of purple wisteria petals accumulate on the balcony and stoop. In a recess next to the front door, a palm tree reaches for the sky and completes the scene: in its scale, setback and proportions, Bank Street is quietly settling into this South Melbourne streetscape. Before setting off, Rob and Isabella duck next door for a coffee, making a quiet connection of their own to this historic neighbourhood made anew.
City Living: Neometro Residents and Works is available at all bookstores or online at Bookshop by Uro.
