Bronte House

Bronte House was originally designed by the Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis, who set it on the edge of what is now known as Bronte Gully. Construction began circa 1838, but Lewis sold the house in 1843, when it was still incomplete, to the barrister Robert Lowe (later to be known as Viscount Sherbrooke). Lowe completed the construction of the house and its gardens and named it after Lord Nelson, who was known as the Duke of Bronte (a town in Sicily). Lowe's wife Georgiana was a painter and painted a number of pictures of Bronte House. The house has been described as a "magnificent, mid-Victorian maritime residence". It is a sandstone, one-storey bungalow with verandahs on the west and east sides. It features a service wing that extends to the south, plus two octagonal turrets and one with a cone-shaped roof. The garden was neglected over the years, until well-known journalist, festival curator and patron of the arts, Leo Schofield, became the tenant. Schofield has been credited with restoring the garden. Landscape designer Myles Baldwin, joined Bronte House in 2001 working with Schofield in creating the garden into one of the best examples of Victorian "Gardenesque" design in Australia. Today, the house is now owned by Waverley Council and is leased to private tenants. The garden is maintained by Myles Baldwin and Carla Pettit and is open three weekends a year.