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Rear 1 Gardiner Rd, Hawthorn, is in one of Melbourne’s most illustrious pockets — but the only thing that has ever lived there is a horse.
A HORSE with no name is the only thing to ever have lived at an elite Hawthorn address dating back to the 1930s.
Families pay multimillion-dollar sums to live in the suburb’s Scotch Hill precinct a stone’s throw from top school Scotch College.
But none have ever lived at the unique allotment at the rear of 1 Gardiner Rd that was carved off from a neighbouring home and fenced off in the 1930s.
A fruit and vegetable garden took up residence soon after until a horse, whose name appears lost to history, moved in during the 1960s. And that’s it.
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The 253sq m bare block is now up for grabs with a $1.1-$1.2 million asking price that includes a permit for an architect-designed four-bedroom home.
Long-term owner Chris Welsby said while he’d always hoped to build on the site, it was now time to give someone else the chance.
“It’s quite hard to say goodbye, even though we haven’t actually lived on it,” Mr Welsby said.
“It’s something we were planning to build on, but just didn’t get to.”
The block at Rear 1 Gardiner Rd, Hawthorn, has a permit in place for an architect-designed four-bedroom home.
Despite it being an empty plot, he’ll be taking some memories from the site — including the sound of a horse munching on apples purloined from the dining hall of the nearby school by boarding students back in the 1960s.
“And it’s fascinated passers by,” Mr Welsby said.
“It’s a bit like an English country lane with weeping peppercorn trees … this quaint backwater still exists, and yet there’s trams 100m away where modern life goes on.
“It’s lain fallow for all this time, only used for agricultural purposes.”
Kay and Burton’s Scott Patterson said it was remarkable to find an undeveloped plot of land in the popular precinct.
“It’s a unique little parcel of land,” Mr Patterson said.
CoreLogic records show the last property sold on Gardiner Rd, Hawthorn, was the four-bedroom house at No. 15, which snared $4.56 million in May last year.
Rear 1 Gardiner Rd, Hawthorn, goes under the hammer on August 25 at 1pm.