Nicholas Aspro family Toorak chauffeur's clocktower quarters
Converted some 25 years ago, The Clocktower House in Toorak has been listed for 16 May auction through Warwick Anderson at RT Edgar.
With its bronze clock tower, the residence was originally the garage and chauffeur's residence of Homeden. The Rolls Royce has long gone.
Homeden was the 1890 home of Supreme Court Justice Sir Henry Hodges, who'd married into the Chirnside family.
Edward Grimwade, from the pharmacists, Felton & Grimwade, was a later owner, but Homeden was better known given its subsequent association with the Nicholas family whose fortune came from the pharmaceutical manufacturing of the Aspro.
The currently offered building dates from the Nicholas days, and is now a four bedroom home behind its blackwood and copperlight arched doorway following its renovation by the McKindley family - John and stylist Judith - at an estimated $22,000 cost following its 1979 purchase. The front door comes from the former Homeden mansion.
The original garage area comprises two distinct living zones,and a galley kitchen cleverly divided behind some of the original garage doors.
The upstairs chauffeur's quarters above offers three bedrooms, open fireplaces, with wooden floors and vaulted ceilings. There are windows taken from the demolished Homeden mansion.
It sits on a 740 square metre block at 4 Lawrenny Court. It last traded in 1985 at around $450,000.
Homeden was the home of George Nicholas and his wife Shirley Alcock, from the gun merchants Alcock and Pierce family, niece of Randall Alcock, owner of Robur Tea.
Homeden was a luxurious mansion George had refurbished in Lansell Road, having some 57 rooms.
The Homeden name remains as a 1960s block of flats at 46 Lansell Road.
Locals are suggesting the Clockhouse should easily fetch $3.5 million plus.
