Over the previous 45 years, property developer Bob Galvin has lovingly restored and up to date this unbelievable Queen Anne-style villa on a lush 1880sqm property that was as soon as dwelling to the Dom Polski Centre. Now, it might be yours.
“You’re consuming my peaches, younger man!”
Sitting down with a bounty of fruit he had raided from an orchard in lush New Zealand countryside, Bob Galvin seemed as much as the supply of the English accent and located a lady pointing a strolling stick at him.
“I used to be 12-years-old and an English lady caught me raiding her orchard in Christchurch,” says Bob.
“My jumper was stuffed with peaches and I used to be sitting there consuming them. She instructed me off and I stated, ‘they have been simply on the bottom – I assumed I’d decide them up’.
“She requested me what I used to be doing there, and I instructed her I had come as much as ask for a job. I stated, ‘I like gardening’.
“She stated, ‘come and see me subsequent weekend’.
“I believe she appreciated me as a result of I used to be cheeky. So, I went there, and she or he had six servants: a butler, a driver, three gardeners and a chef, and we had tea on her patio.
“Simply speaking about it now, I can see myself sitting on that patio along with her butler wearing black with a bowtie serving Devonshire tea.
“That was the most important and most stunning home I had ever seen and that gave me an perception to the place I might be sooner or later.
“I labored there on weekends for 4 years beneath the gardeners, learnt about vegetation and timber, and soaked up a wealth of data at a really younger age.”
That have planted a seed in Bob’s thoughts that developed right into a deep appreciation and love for gardens, landscapes, and property – ultimately happening to type the Galvin Group’s profitable suite of South Australian companies.
It additionally impressed his buy of the grand, sprawling property on 1880sqm at 519 Torrens Street, Woodville.
Forty-five years in the past, Bob was offered with a chance to buy the gorgeous Queen Anne-style villa off-market.
“Once I noticed it, I cherished it, and not directly, it took me again to that property at Christchurch,” Bob says.
Inbuilt about 1900, the Queen Anne-style villa is a former dwelling of the Dom Polski Centre, now on Angas Avenue.
When Bob bought the property, the constructing was an enormous open L-shape that catered for dinners, dancing, and stay music.
“It’s modified dramatically since then. I’ve re-done every little thing you see in the home – the backyard, entrance partitions, every little thing,” says Bob.
Impressed by an ornate timber-clad room he had seen on the dwelling in Christchurch, Bob constructed a video games room which has extra not too long ago been used as a boardroom.
“I keep in mind an enormous room within the previous home the place the girl had given me a job, and it was panelled fully in English oak,” he says.
“So, in an analogous method, I had the entire room panelled in oak. I used it as a video games room with a billiard desk and a bar and we had a whole lot of enjoyable with mates taking part in pool and having a number of drinks.”
Whereas a entrance room has been maintained to its unique state, the remainder of the home has been recreated to satisfy Bob’s imaginative and prescient of how a traditional dwelling ought to be.
He additionally planted the entire property’s timber himself, drawing on his in depth landscaping and gardening expertise.
The massive pin oaks flip golden in autumn, whereas the biggest tree – a London aircraft tree – shades all the backyard and driveway in summer season. “It’s a stunning tree,” says Bob.
At 540sqm, the house itself is way bigger than fashionable dwelling blocks.
It options an ornate turret, in typical Queen Anne-style.
Bob’s ornate library is appointed with luxurious ornamental cornices and has direct stairway entry into the cellar.
“You don’t see this stage of element even in mansions within the japanese suburbs. It’s simply element, element, element. You’ve actually obtained to see it in individual to get the texture of it,” he says.
“I used to be very fortunate to seek out actually good tradespeople and I’ve stored working with them for years.”
Given Bob’s lively curiosity in property and love for gardens, the truth that he has stored this dwelling for 45 years speaks volumes about it.
“I’ve been to England a number of instances visiting gardens and homes there. I’d simply write to them and ask if I may go to,” he says.
“On three events, I spent a month every time simply touring gardens and homes.”
Bob says after 45 years, and with the property being so giant with 4 bedrooms and its expansive gardens, now could be the best time to promote.
“I’m 67 and I assumed, properly, I’ve obtained to decelerate a while. Why not now?”
The property is being bought by Sharyn Yelland and Grant Giordano of Giordano & Companions.
