Have you ever heard of Travancore?

Wedged between Parkville, (Melbourne’s hospital and university precinct) and Flemington, this little-known, teeny-tiny little suburb is both highly revered by the locals, and abundant in intra-war architectural style.

Interestingly, for a suburb only 5km from CBD, and in particular; one that most Melburnian’s have travelled through (albiet over), Travancore is one of the least-known inner ‘burbs when it comes to suburb familiarity.

As the auctioneer, Paul McDonald announced yesterday, “the last population count I was privy to for this suburb was 2,499 people. Today’s buyer could become number 2,500.”

We had the pleasure of representing a young family at this auction and the analysis and preparation in the lead up was really interesting. Assessing recent, comparable sales is always part of our research, along with understanding local planning applications, approvals and the varying degrees of improvements neighbouring houses have experienced.

Unlike so many other inner-northern suburbs, something that really stood out about this pocket for us was the architectural era and generous block sizes. Travancore has an abundance of intra-war brick homes with superb facade detail, and while the era is consistent among so many homes, most have their own special differences.

“Single storey detached houses were common during this period. Economic stringency and the move towards modernism were both reflected in this style. Most houses were set well back from the street on fairly large blocks.

Building forms were simple and fairly austere with limited embellishment, although the influence of a number of decorative styles such as Spanish Mission, Georgian Revival and Art Deco were apparent. Space was optimised by removing long passages, combining rooms and decreasing kitchen sizes. Porches replaced verandahs.” (Source: Culture Victoria)

Our clients’ beautiful acquisition is a stunning amalgamation of the intra-war style you’d expect for a 1929 home, with a twist of Spanish mission when we spot the superb brick arch at the vestibule entry.

Neighbouring houses exhibit similar twists, yet every superb north-rear facing brick house in this street has a uniqueness.

This incredible Spanish mission home in the same street sold for circa three million dollars last year and is a hint into the highly-prized nature of this special suburb.

Travancore’s history is intriguing, too.

“Travancore takes its name from the Travancore Mansion and Estate, a property in the area owned by Henry Madden. Madden purchased the property, previously Flemington House, from the relatives of Hugh Glass in 1906, and renamed it. Madden exported horses to India, hence the property being named after the former southern Indian kingdom of Travancore, now part of the Indian state of Kerala. When the land around Travancore Mansion was sub-divided, many of the streets were named in keeping with the Indian theme, such as Baroda Street, Lucknow Street, Bengal Street, Cashmere Street and Mangalore Street. Some of the houses reflect the Old English architecture of the former Travancore region of India.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Yesterday’s auction success was touching for a few reasons. Our clients had missed out on a couple of houses and this one was a wonderful realisation as a suitable option. The vendors met with us and shared special stories about the history of the home, and the neighbours all came out to see who would be the new family in the street.

What this exercise and analysis showed us, however was just how important streetscape, architectural style, generous land allotments and uniformity is when it comes to buyer demand.

We faced multiple bidders, and Travancore is no stranger to that scenario.