The Ridge | Bowral

Two hours south of Sydney, in a region known as the Southern Highlands, lies the town of Bowral. For long years the cool climate retreat of the well-to-do, a small town ringed by grand estates, Bowral has always been a bit of a treat for weekenders and holidaymakers alike.

To the north of the town is Mount Gibraltar, a large trachyte outcrop, once quarried to supply foundations for Sydney’s civic buildings and even the Australian High Commission in London.

On Mount Gibraltar stands ‘The Ridge’, an elegant colonnaded villa set at the centre of one of the finest landscaped gardens in the Southern Highlands.

Built in 1923 as the home of Sydney architect H.E. Wardell, the house has Pedigree.

H.E. was the son of William Wilkinson Wardell, the architect of Melbourne’s Government House, St Patrick’s Cathedral, and Sydney’s St John’s College and St Mary’s Cathedral.

The house had been altered over time; its floor plan was awkward, one elevation was beautiful but the other three were not. There was no obvious front door, and perplexingly, given the beauty of the landscape around it, there was no connection between the interior and the garden.

The architectural approach sought to amend this in a way such that changes would feel original to the house. We would end up moving, removing, or adjusting every window in the house bar four, but the result feels natural, permanent, and timeless.

The design created four handsome elevations, and ample connection between inside and out. The northern façade was heavily modified to take on the same classical balance of the garden front.

The original drawings of the house were made available to us and informed the thinking of how to arrange the elevation and what original elements might be quoted or reintroduced, and something of the character of the 1920s architecture was amplified over the walls.

Small, irregularly-spaced windows to the loggia were replaced with arched French doors that answer the proportions of the façade while directly linking the interiors to views across the garden.

On the east and west elevations a more modern approach was embraced, skewering the flanks of the house with crisp steel awnings sheltering modern pivot windows. In this way, a more meaningful connection between house and garden was created than traditionally-proportioned windows would allow.

The interior design and decoration was undertaken by the late Sarah Davison, Christine Rose, and Esther Brooks, of Sarah Davison Interiors. Under their eyes, the interior of house was reimagined completely.

There’s not a corner of the house that wasn’t touched, but Sarah’s grasp of the essential qualities of the house were such that one would swear the place had always been just as it now is.

Design cues were tailored to the owners of the house; it’s almost as though the interiors could be worn by the people as comfortably as the clothes, shoes, jewellery they might otherwise pick up and put on. The interiors are wholly Sarah’s design, but unmistakably the occupants’ character.

Modifications to the garden were undertaken by Michael Bligh.

The house, always remarkable, is now comfortable, connected, and considered.