THE MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR MELBOURNE HOME WITH DRAMATIC STREET CRED
A grand East Melbourne terrace with theatrical roots, reimagined by the late Sue Carr into a layered, light-filled family home.
3 min
Traditional Victorian-era terraces are famed for their theatrical façades adorned with intricate lacework and plenty of character. However, one historic home on Gipps St in East Melbourne has the ultimate dramatic street cred; it was designed by William Pitts, the architect behind Melbourne’s iconic Princess Theatre.
Pitts designed multiple Melbourne beauties, including St Kilda Town Hall, Queens Bridge, the Olderfleet building and the Rialto on Collins St, even the Wellington Opera House in New Zealand.
Crafted and built around 1870, prior to the completion of the Princess Theatre in 1886, this end-of-row terrace gained a new lease on life in 2019 when acclaimed architect Sue Carr AM was tasked with bringing it gracefully into the 21st Century via a four-year labour of love transformation.
Today, Kay & Burton agents Monique Depierre and Arabella Houghton are seeking between $10.5 and $11 million for 123 Gipps St via an expressions of interest campaign. The home was last exchanged for $4 million in 2012, before the extensive renovation.
In a pocket of East Melbourne where heritage overlays protect the character of the streetscape, the Victorian terrace was carefully reimagined to balance period elegance with contemporary comfort. Behind its striking white façade, Carr and her team created a series of layered spaces where period detail and modern function co-exist.
Carr has described her approach to the Gipps St property as “a journey of reduction.” By stripping back superfluous elements, to reveal the grandeur of Pitts’ original structure.
“The idea was to bring order and appropriateness of scale, respect for heritage, and outright contemporaneity to a Victorian terrace,” Carr has said when describing the home.
Central to that vision was light. The home is arranged across three zones: the restored terrace, a private courtyard garden, and a two-storey rear addition.
In the original front rooms, there are decorative cornices, ceiling roses and marble fireplaces. These classic old-world spaces with a modern makeover include a versatile music room, a library and a grand dining area.
Stepping through to the next generation of the floor plan, the heart of the home features a contemporary kitchen with a stone island bench and a hidden butler’s pantry fully-equipped with Gaggenau appliances.
The casual everyday family zone, complete with a cosy gas pebble fireplace, opens out to a bluestone-paved north-facing courtyard, where the current owners have created a calming retreat filled with bonsai trees and manicured landscaping.
Up on the first floor, all four bedrooms feature ample natural light and have built-in wardrobes. Beyond a statement pivot door, the main bedroom opens to a full-width private balcony overlooking leafy East Melbourne and has a walk-through wardrobe to an ensuite with a freestanding sculptural bath. One more bedroom has its own ensuite, while two more share a full family-friendly bathroom.
More than just a Melbourne terrace with an extension out the back, Carr’s transformation also includes a new zinc-clad rear addition that plays a dual role; it is a secure two-car garage with laneway access, that is also home to a self-contained studio above. Fitted out with its own kitchenette and bathroom, the independent space is an ideal guest suite, a home office or au pair retreat.
The modernised home boasts a long list of added extras, including honed limestone floors with underfloor hydronic heating and zoned climate control, as well as full security and custom lighting.
Close to green spaces, such as Fitzroy Gardens, Powlett Reserve and Darling Square, the East Melbourne house is within walking distance to the MCG, and city restaurants.
Listed with Monique Depierre and Arabella Houghton of Kay & Burton, 123 Gipps St, East Melbourne, is on the market with a price guide of $10.5 million to $11 million. The expressions of interest is closing on October 28 at 12 pm.
For Central Element, the start of work at Pearl represents another step in the company’s growing eastern suburbs pipeline.
All three vehicles will form part of a broader charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.
4 min
For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.
The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.
“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.
That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.
Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.
The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.
“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”
Collecting instead of decorating
Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.
Collecting is less conclusive.
A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.
That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.
A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.
The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.
For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.
Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.
A design perspective shaped by travel
International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.
Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.
More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.
“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”
Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.
Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.
A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.
The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.
Designing the complete experience
FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.
The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.
That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.
Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.
The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.
Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.
The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.
A home that can keep changing
The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.
Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.
“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”
That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.
The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.
This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.
Fact box
- Designer: Jack Freeman
- Role: Founder and managing director
- Practice: FREEMAN & CO
- Base: Australia, with international projects
- Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean
- Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts
- Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation
- Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials
- Website: free-man.co
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