New Town, originally settled in 1805, is one of Hobart’s oldest suburbs approximately 4 kilometres north from Hobart central business district. With many of its streets being lined with Federation style cottages it is now considered to be a highly sought after inner city residential suburb and is the home of Tasmania’s most exclusive private school, The Friends.
It is believed that the first section of Wendover, a single storey rubble wall building, existed as early as 1835. It is also believed that the majority of the additions and extensions were carried out by Lavington Roope some time in the late 1850′s. The property was originally named Risdon Park but appears to have changed name to Wendover House some time around 1920 and was used as a monastery in the 1940′s. The previous owners purchased the property in 1978 and converted it to a well known Bed and Breakfast colonial accommodation guest house. Wendover’s current owners purchased the property in 2003 and have since then sympathetically converted it back to a gracious colonial mansion with 22 rooms spread over approximately 589 square metres (63 squares).
Wendover is listed with the Tasmanian Heritage Council and its architectural style is described as Victorian Regency. It has a verandah with decorative timber posts, brackets and trellis, as well as multi-paned French windows and is set on approximately 1748 square metres of land, facing north, in a very quiet no through street with excellent privacy.
Accommodation is extremely flexible and many of the rooms have been built on a grand scale with high ceilings, ornate ceiling roses and cornicing, and exquisite timberwork throughout. There are at least 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and 5 formal living rooms, as well as a large formal dining room and a magnificent new kitchen complete with an 8 burner double oven gas cooker for the largest of dinner parties. The main formal living rooms are separated by full length cedar doors that open to form an imposingly large entertaining room with open firep