Medieval Italy meets Sydney's inner west in a two-title offering expected to break the suburb record

There are streets in the inner-west suburb of Stanmore where, if you block out the hum of the traffic and the rattle of passing trains, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve been transported to medieval Italy.

“High Victorian Italianate” describes one of the most fashionable architectural styles of the 1880s, when grand mansions were built along the new rail line. Unlike Georgian or Grecian Revival styles, these homes favoured irregular floor plans with tall, narrow windows, decorative ironwork and deep overhanging eaves reminiscent of Tuscan villas in the Middle Ages.

At the time, Stanmore was a fledgling suburb viewed by wealthy residents as a desirable alternative to the slums and smog-filled industrial areas closer to the town. As farms were subdivided and farmhouses demolished, blocks near the station became a magnet for cashed-up merchants and professionals wanting a picturesque escape from the city.

For the wealthy pastoralist Benjamin Eves, building an enormous home was more than just a status symbol; it was something of a necessity to house his 14 (yes, 14) children.

Completed in 1889, Essington was designed with two rear bedroom wings: one for the girls and one for the boys. Cedar staircases led to these two wings, with an interconnecting morning room at the top of the stairs.

The house was ornately decorated with pressed metal ceilings, wallpaper friezes, stained glass and 10 marble fireplaces. Two stone lions stood guard at the marble entrance stairs, inlaid with patterned Italian tiles.

Many of these early villas were later converted into manor houses. In this case, the Eves family bequeathed the estate to the Presbyterian Church in 1956. It was used as a boys’ home until the early 1980s, when it was converted back into a family residence.

Essington has changed hands four more times since then, most recently to the Santos family, who paid $2.3 million in 2011. Now, the 10-bedroom, four-bathroom heritage-listed home is once again in search of a new owner.

Set on two titles covering more than 900 square metres, the elegantly updated house offers multiple living and reception rooms, a separate studio and north-facing gardens with a heated pool and summer house. DA approval has been granted to create two homes.

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34-36 Gordon Crescent, Stanmore NSW 2048

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Jonathan Hammond, of Cobden & Hayson Annandale, expects the sale to smash the current Stanmore house price record of $4.08 million, set in 2017 with an off-market deal in Cambridge Street.

“We’ve had interest from families wanting to upsize in this area and we’ve got a few relocating from the north shore to be closer to the train line and private schools, obviously with proximity to the city,” says Hammond.

“There’s not many of this scale that come onto the market.”