18 Richmond Crescent Gladesville

This house at 18 Richmond Crescent Gladesville was featured in the November 2016 Trust Journal under the heading ‘Heritage under Threat‘. Council had received a development application to demolish the house and construct a new, much larger, house in its place.  Trust committee member, Caroline Mackaness, wrote a submission to Council about it, much of which was published in the Journal article.

The house is in Conservation Area C1 and Conservation Area C435 (Dept of Housing Subdivision) and is within the General Landscape Conservation Area. The subdivision was designed by Sir John Sulman in 1919.

Council’s Conservation Advisory Panel advised Council that, in its view, the existing cottage should be retained as a largely intact example of the housing built by NSW Department of Housing in the early post-WW1 development of the area.  The Panel also considered the proposed replacement house to be inappropriate in its response to the streetscape, which is typified by asymmetrical facades.  Council also received a number of individual objections and a petition opposing the application.

The application was refused by Council in April 2017 and an appeal lodged by the owners in September 2017. The appeal is currently being heard in the Land and Environment Court, initially as a Conciliation Meeting to attempt to arrive at a compromise solution that retains the existing house. The Trust’s Vice President Tony Coote addressed an on-site meeting of the court and outlined The Trust’s objection to the demolition of the house.  If a compromise solution cannot be agreed, the court will determine the appeal.