Bramber, the 1880s à Beckett family home, listed
The 1880s Bramber, a grand but now contemporary Brighton mansion, has been listed for September 15 auction.
Bramber is a substantial double-storey four-bedroom Italianate brick residence with an asymmetrical double-fronted composition. It now sits on a 460-square-metre block, having had two townhouses constructed in its rear grounds about a decade ago.
Its Marshall White listing agent Kate Strickland says it has been owned by the same family for the past four decades. There's already been strong buyer interest in the low $2 millions after its first weekend inspection.
"Bramber's revival is outstanding – a historic light-filled home transformed into a contemporary masterpiece," Stricklan suggests.
It was built in its Black Street Middle Brighton location for the politician Thomas Turner a'Beckett.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography says à Beckett came from London to Australia around 1850 to visit his two brothers, who had emigrated to Sydney and then decided to settle in Victoria.
He later wrote: "No better opportunity will ever be afforded to a man who is prepared to stick to his work."
He soon built up a prosperous private practice as a solicitor sought by savings banks, by the London and Liverpool Fire Insurance Co., and as chairman of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Co., a position he held for more than 20 years.
Bramber dates from after he retired from active public life in 1878.
With his wife, Eliza, nee Stuckey, they settled in Brighton, where à Beckett was a keen gardener belonging to the local horticultural society.
He died at Brighton in 1892, leaving his estate to his surviving children and his second wife Laura Jane, née Stuckey, a second cousin of Eliza.
