I have a soft spot for Penshurst, the house I’m going to share with you today. When I was a teenager, after school my best friend and I used to walk down to the river, swim at Bicton Baths and then we’d walk home, sometimes taking a different route to look at the beautiful houses by the river. One day in 2000 we chanced upon this huge old Victorian house, which looked much like the below at the time.
It was a wreck then, but there was something about it, sitting proudly on the hill, older than any other house around it - it had a presence. I was enchanted.
So were Tim and Frances Brien from the U.K, who first clapped eyes on Penshurst in 2001, a year after I first came across it. The Briens, who own a childcare centre, came across a newspaper ad with a drawing of what the house might have once looked like (see below). But as they drew up to the house, they realised the drawing was not entirely accurate! Time had weathered the home so much it was a dilapidated ruin. But they were hooked – and they bought it.
One of my favourite things about my job is getting to stickybeak inside houses I'd admired for years, and when the chance came to write about Penshurst, I jumped at it. It didn't disappoint me - but it did disappoint its first owner. Built in 1897 for a sea captain, the limestone house, named Penshurst, was built on the highest spot in the area atop Richmond Hill, with panoramic ocean, river, city and Darling Ranges views. Absolutely spectacular views. But the story goes that the sea captain’s wife turned up to look at the house one day while it was being built, hated it on sight, turned around and drove back down the road, refusing to ever live in it.
Whether that tale is true or not, Penshurst has not seemed to have had much luck enchanting any of its owners – until the Briens came along. Before them, the house was always a rental. Its previous owners included a WA premier and a man who had spent 20 months at a German prisoner-of-war camp in WWI (both who never resided there) and in 1941 the house was even divided into four rental flats. “We were the first owners who actually lived in it,” laughs Tim.
When the Briens made it theirs, the place was a ruin, falling apart from years of termite damage, vandalism and lack of maintenance. It was once even close to demolition in the 90s – how lucky it didn’t go through! “When we bought it, everyone told us we were crazy,” says Tim, who took on the daunting task of project manager – at just 28!
While the renovations at Penshurst went on, Tim said drivers constantly slowed down in the middle of the road to stare at the house, passers-by stopped to chat, and many people who have lived in the house since it was built have dropped in to share their stories and old photos.
It took renovations tallying a million dollars, but so impressive was Tim and Fran’s work, they won the 2012 Western Australian Heritage Award for Outstanding Conservation of a Residential Place. Now after more than ten years in the home, they have decided to sell; looking forward to giving another family an opportunity to enjoy the home and excited about starting the next chapter in their lives – well, except for Tim and Fran’s daughters, aged 8 and 10, who have lived at Penshurst their whole lives.
“The kids got really upset,” says Tim, adding that one of his daughters had always complained about living in an old house and claimed that when she was grown up that her house was going to be “new and modern”. Perhaps not surprisingly, she’s now devastated that they are leaving and has taken it into her own hands to try to make Tim’s real estate agent, the lovely Toby Astill of Space Real Estate, miserable every time he comes over. “She hates Toby, and the poor man hasn’t done anything wrong,” laughs Tim.
But could they really leave, after the excitement of living through what may be one of Perth’s most dramatic home renovations? Tim says it is likely they will find another project. I look forward to seeing the next one.
HOME LOWDOWN
THE OWNERS
Childcare centre owners Tim and Frances Brien, who live with their two daughters, aged 8 and 10, and their chocolate Labrador puppy
THEIR HOME
A fully restored, heritage-listed 1897 sea captain’s house that had once fallen into disrepair
LOCATION
Fremantle, Western Australia
PURCHASED
2001
FEATURES
Period features, fireplaces, panoramic ocean, river, city and island views from hilltop position, library, music room, cellar, modern open-plan living extension, entry hall, wraparound veranda and balcony, children’s activity room, formal lounge, study, lap pool
THE SELLING AGENT
Toby Astill of Space Real Estate, 0410 855 803 or 9284 4008