Spacious historical gem in Wayville
This heritage listed Wayville home, originally designed by the renowned Walter Charles Torode, is a rare gem boasting the luxury of space in a close knit urban area, sitting on approximately 3455 square metres.
A Lutheran Church youth hostel, a school, a theatre club, and once again a residential home. Clovelly has lived many lives.
This Wayville property was originally built as a residence for local confectioner and restauranteur Edwin Ellis in 1912 by renowned builder Walter Charles Torode known for a suite of local landmark buildings including Adelaide University’s Elder Conservatorium, the Stock Exchange and the western towers of St Peter’s Cathedral.
When Eloise Martin and her husband, Graham, purchased Clovelly in 2022, its previous owners had done most of the heavy lifting required to convert it from its commercial use as a Lee’s Theatre Club back to a residential property.
Originally from Adelaide, but having lived overseas for more than 25 years, Eloise returned with her young twins and husband for Adelaide’s family friendly lifestyle.
“I wanted to move back to Adelaide, where I grew up, and have my children brought up in the same way with lots of family,” says Eloise, who works in human resources.
“This house ticked all the boxes of what we wanted.”
With six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a pool, five living spaces – including an external studio and an external pool house – on approximately 3455 square metres 307 Young Street, Wayville, is a rare gem boasting the luxury of space in an urban area.
“We looked at a number of houses whilst still living in London that were not quite right,” Eloise says.
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“we’d been looking for a while and we fell in love with Clovelly instantly.”
“What appealed to us was that it’s got the history but also the modern renovation, so you’ve got the mix of the old and the new.”
The extensive renovations by Clovelly’s previous owners weren’t completely finished, and signs of the property’s eclectic past still lingered, allowing Eloise and Graham to put their own spin on it.
They installed solar panels and a solar battery, decking around the pool and a pergola with blinds so it can be made completely weatherproof. They also converted the horse stables next to the pool from their original condition to a living space with an adjoining gym.
The basic, dilapidated kitchenette from its days as a church and a theatre company remained as well as a commercial bathroom with a vacant-occupied sign, which Eloise and Graham had converted into a home office and a small bar that services the formal dining room and the sunroom at the front of the house.
“One of the first things we did was gut those rooms,” Eloise says.
“We left them empty for a while, while we focused on the pool, and just very recently renovated those.
Installed terrazzo tiles and made an opening in the wall for the new bar to service the adjoining sunroom and formal dining room.
The external studio was in also in need of some attention, so they modernised it and installed terrazzo tiles.
“We put tiles in the studio because it would really lend itself to having a pool table in there and it’s not recommended to have floorboards for pool tables,” Eloise says.
“It could also easily be converted into a self-contained granny flat or studio, so then with that tiling, you could put in a bathroom and a kitchen and still have a living area and a bedroom in there as well.
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“It’s a pretty big area.”
One of Graham’s prerequisites for their move to Adelaide was that they needed to have a chicken cop, or enough space to install one.
Having found a property that has space in spades, they installed a chicken coop large enough to put all others to shame
“People laugh at us and say that it’s like the Taj Mahal for chickens,” Eloise says.
One of the things Eloise will miss most is Clovelly’s layout. The quality insulation of the old structure paired with so many different living zones lends itself to entertaining large crowds while catering to different groups.
“There’s so much living space, so you can have people over and you can have teenagers in one wing and other people in another,” she says.
“To me, the layout inside is perfect, because of all the different zones and how separate you are, noise-wise, from the children.
“We wanted to make it so that all of the property was usable.”
Graham’s passion, outside of his marketing day-job, lied in construction, while Eloise’s lies in interior design, so the couple is now looking towards their next project.
“Every time we buy and sell – we’ve done it a number of times – something is just right when you see the property, something just clicks,” Eloise says.
“When we saw this one, we instantly knew it was the one
“My husband’s is ready for the next thing; this is what he loves doing.
“It’s not without a lot of sadness
“I don’t think we’re going to find something that is as unique and ticks all of those boxes, that is also two minutes to the tram and five minutes to King William Road and Goodwood Road.”
The sale of 307 Young Street, Wayville, is being handled by Jamie Brown of Booth Real Estate.
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