Inside a luxury Hawthorn home on a prized bend of the Yarra River

After a lifetime of driving around Melbourne, an internal, intuitive GPS develops and becomes an unremarkable part of you – a second nature where traffic rhythms and road cambers are stored then selected when needed, almost without thought.

Sometimes it’s not even the streets driven, or the roads travelled; it’s the things you see out of the corner of your eye, over years. Fragments coalesce, a whole picture emerges.

Elevate your living experience with our digital magazines

Browse Domain’s property and lifestyle magazines.

Read now

Riverside Hawthorn is a part of Melbourne you lock away as you wait for the boom gates in Burnley. You might briefly marvel at the elegant homes spilling toward the water while on a kid’s sports run or as you sail along on a Swan Street tram, wistfully watching another world.

There are splendid abodes set on the Yarra’s banks here, but this one has that most remarkable of all river seats: the beauty of the bend.

SOLD - Price Withheld

4A Glan Avon Road, Hawthorn VIC 3122

4

3

2

View property

Seeing the home, fleetingly or otherwise, from the opposite riverbank affords an enchanting look at its fine siting amid garden surrounds, tripping down steps to water’s edge. Approaching the house in the conventional fashion, via the road rather than a rowing boat, is an appealing beginning too.

What you find here is a classic, contained and contemporary facade – a straight-lined, boxy edifice with a central, double-height column glazed and glowing. To either side, high walls, garden and garage combine in compound-creating privacy.

Inside, the Neil Architecture design is, conversely, a generous open book. That glassy vestibule is the light and lungs of the ground level, drawing you into the glorious centre and its defining, divine elliptical staircase.

Beyond here, the house fans into accessible, but smartly delineated spaces, the river hoving into view along its south side.

The sitting room is the most open of these, warmly inviting entrants straight from the foyer into the Yarra’s arc as it bends beyond the splendid floor-to-ceiling windows.

Attractive timber floors flow back from here, past the well-sited den opposite and powder room tucked under the stairway, to another spectacular viewing area, also known as the kitchen-dining-living zone.

Taupe-toned stone and white cabinetry make a stylish kitchen combination, and a butler’s pantry to the side rolls into a wine room, adding utility to already excellent amenities.

Really, though, maybe just order some takeaway and set yourself up in front of the living room windows or slide open the glass and take in the river from the expansive deck that is also accessed from the sitting room. Superb.

A different kind of water view awaits on the other side, past the fine dining area and its sculptural skylights. Here, another large deck takes you out into the private, north-facing garden and a sparkling pool with spa.

If you circle back to the front, you’ll find the brilliant main-bedroom suite overlooking this serene pool and garden area. This exceptional retreat is perfectly zoned and includes a large walk-in wardrobe and a stone-accented en suite with picture-window pool views.

Take that spectacular swirling staircase to the first floor and three further bedrooms. One has an en suite, all have super views, and there’s a smart bathroom and study area up here too.

We love this kind of linear, contemporary style – the no-nonsense sophistication and composed space is built for time and tide. A river house to remember.