There’s something about old, dilapidated houses that I love. (Probably because I spent many years growing up in one? 🤔) I think it’s also because I like to think about who may have lived in them, what they looked like in their hey day and what stories they have to tell.

For many years now, I’ve been driving down North Road towards Brighton to go for my weekly beach walk.

This end of the road is well known for its historical significance. Built up in the 1850s which saw the area as vineyards, there are three well known churches Presbyterian (built around 1880s), St James Catholic and St Stephens Anglican built around the 1920s.

The beach end of North Road Brighton also has a mix of different housing styles and mansions and over time, some of them having been demolished to build massive mansions. I like walking this area as you can still see older federation homes and buildings (and even an old park) that were used post World War 1 as homes or convalescent places for returned soldiers.

There’s this house on 22 North Road that I always pass that has captured my attention.

Every time I passed it, I always thought to take a photo. I called it the “Virginia Woolf House”. Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with this author but the style of the home was like it was out of the early 1900s. Something about it makes me think of a quieter and simpler time. I imagine the rooms inside having tall ceilings, timber fret work between the large rooms and ornate patterns on the ceiling. I hope that someone with creative endeavours such as a writer or artist lived there. That’s my mind running away from me…..

Anyway, one of the things I’m kicking myself is that I didn’t take a photo of the original picket fence. The style of the fence stood out for me because it was about as tall as myself and set back from the pavement. It looked of a different and classic design of the time. I should have taken a photo! (Now that’s gone forever too).

In recent times, the Mancini Developers have put a large fence around the property as it was sold off for over $5.3 million and it’s likely over the coming months, they’ll demolish this house and build a monstrosity in its place. It’ll disappear from my memory and my imagination altogether.

I think what captured my imagination was that it had the original elements such as the roof with the tiles, the L-shaped verandah and the fretted timber. The picket fence too – which is now long gone.

The style is Edwardian but it is known as a Queen Anne style villa made of weatherboard. There were many houses made like this between 1900-1915 and I do wonder what the wonderful elm and maritime pine lined North Road would have looked like back then. Would this house have been owned by someone who fought in the Great War? Or was it part of the War Service Commission Homes? Maybe a writer or artist who didn’t have a family lived in it for many years until it became dilapidated around him.

Today on my way to the beach I decided finally to stop and take some photos before this history disappears. I stuck my head through a hole in the fence and took some photos. It’s unfortunate that whoever owned this didn’t have the money to do it up and restore it to its former glory.

Here’s some examples of renovated similar styles homes. You can see how they improved the roof to terracotta tiles or corrugated but my “Virginia Woolf” house has its original roof.

I love these old houses that are artworks in my mind and imagination. There’s no way we would be able to afford any homes like this ever. I would have loved to have lived in one – to know it’s history, explore the people who lived and loved the house.

Oh well, at least I have my imagination.