Inglesby

Inglesby, otherwise known as the Francis House, was located in South Yarra, Melbourne, Australia. It was designed by local architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear and completed in 1915.

The house was designed for the Francis family, who emigrated from England in the late 19th century. The house was named Inglesby after the family estate in England of the same name. Inglesby was at the forefront of modernism in Australia, by using open-planning and enabling views across the entire house due to few interior walls. Desbrowe-Annear also introduced the ability to open up spaces to combine rooms, or to close them off to create multiple separate spaces. Furthermore, the use of plain white walls, a simple rectangular foot print, and reduced ornamentation also constituted the modernist style through the creation of pure and ordered form. The house was demolished in 1964 and a set of apartment blocks have been erected, which hold references to the Francis House through materiality and retaining the name Inglesby.