Glebe Manor

Tiled pool and spa within a curved black steel fence beside a pale stone terrace with teal lounge and tall hedge, Sydney

This 1880s Victorian-Italianate residence in Glebe’s heritage conservation precinct came with a garden that felt too formal for its new owners. What began as a simple hedge revival grew into a full reworking of the site into a sequence of descending garden spaces — an open lawn, a shaded entertaining terrace, a discreetly positioned pool, and a dense planted grove at the rear.

Materials throughout were chosen with restraint to respect the home’s period detailing — natural stone paving, slim steel edging, and a reworked entry path that traded dated patterned tiles for something simpler and more textural. Existing hedging along the boundaries was pruned back and given a fuller underplanting, punctuated by bold architectural foliage plants that step forward from the greenery for moments of drama.

The wooded corner at the back of the block has become something of a quiet sanctuary — cooler, denser, and now home to birds, insects and lizards that have moved in since the planting matured. It’s the part of the garden the owners return to most, and a fitting outcome for a renewal that added diversity and life to the site while keeping faith with the character that drew them to the property in the first place.

Location

Glebe

Completion

Service

Landscape Architecture, Construction

Teal lounge setting on a pale stone terrace below a Victorian gable, with fenced pool, tall hedge and ivy-covered building beyond, Sydney
Open lawn framed by tall hedging and magnolia, with broad steps down to a pale stone terrace and teal lounge setting, Sydney
Multi-stemmed tree with coppery new growth above ornamental grasses and clipped hedging beside the rendered turret of a Victorian house, Sydney
Victorian-Italianate house with domed turret behind clipped hedging and an iron palisade fence, magnolia in the front garden, Sydney
Gravel courtyard framed by low clipped hedging and elephant ear foliage, with a dark stone threshold and tall hedge beyond, Sydney
Pair of teal woven armchairs on a marble-tiled verandah, with bougainvillea twisting up white columns above the balustrade, Sydney
Teal outdoor sofa and armchair with low timber table, rosemary in the foreground and tall hedge with shade planting behind, Sydney
Teal armchairs and low tables on a pale stone terrace overlooking a pool fringed with purple verbena and white flowering perennials, Sydney
Slender peeling-barked tree rising from grassy underplanting behind a black steel pool fence, with pale stone coping and mosaic pool edge, Sydney
"The surrounding canopy of Spotted Gums provides a dramatic change in mood between sunrise and sunset as the light level shifts."
Matt Cantwell
Creative Director
Mosaic-tiled pool with entry steps beside giant elephant ear foliage and a peeling-barked tree, ivy-clad house wall behind, Sydney
Sunlit pale stone terrace with teal armchairs beside the sandstone base of a verandah, curved pool fence and tree canopy beyond, Sydney
Ivy-clad rendered facade with black timber door, approached by stone pavers in lawn beneath a peeling-barked tree, Sydney
Pale stone pavers set in lawn lead past peeling-barked trees and purple flowering plants to a black steel pool fence, Sydney
Gravel path curving past mounded shrubs and purple flowering perennials toward a white rendered gate pier and entry steps, Sydney
Teal outdoor armchair and potted plant beside a column and balustrade on a shaded verandah, garden canopy beyond, Sydney
Gravel path winding through a dense planted grove with a peeling-barked tree, strappy foliage, silver-leaved shrubs and tall verbena, Sydney
Rattan armchairs on a marble-tiled verandah among potted Monstera and foliage plants, looking over the balustrade to a tall hedge, Sydney
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