4 and 6 Wiston Gardens, Double Bay, Heritage residences in Double Bay, Australia.
4 and 6 Wiston Gardens are two residential houses built in Mediterranean style with Georgian elements, featuring sandstone construction and tiered gardens overlooking the harbor. The buildings display characteristic features of their era with solid structural design and layered terraced spaces.
Professor Leslie Wilkinson designed and built these houses between 1932 and 1936 on the former Mount Adelaide estate site. Number 6 won the prestigious Sir John Sulman Medal in 1934, establishing new directions for residential architecture in New South Wales.
The site carries the name Wiston Gardens, and the two houses are also known as Sweetapple (No. 4) and Parkinson (No. 6). The land was part of William Macdonald's Mount Adelaide estate, where a vineyard reputedly laid out by Thomas Shepherd, New South Wales's first nurseryman, once stood. Shepherd gave lectures on horticulture at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts in 1834–35.
Both houses are private residences on Wiston Gardens and cannot be entered; the terraced grounds are not open to the public. The site sits in Double Bay on the south side of Sydney Harbour, and the houses are best seen from the street. They were listed on the State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The vineyard that once covered this land was reputedly laid out by Thomas Shepherd, New South Wales's first nurseryman and author of the colony's first garden book, his 1835 lectures on horticulture. William Macdonald planted it on his Mount Adelaide estate, and no house stood here when he sold up in 1837.
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