Jenner House (formerly Stramshall Villa) is located at Macleay Street Potts Point and was built for Lebbeus Hordern in 1871 and designed by Edmund Blackett. It was later extended and finally acquired by the Commonwealth in 1940 when the property was truncated to allow for the construction of the Garden Island graving dock. The property was sold by the commonwealth in 1999.
The site occupies 1800 sm and faces straight through the heads of Sydney Harbour . The property is listed on the NSW heritage register. Amongst its unique features are the remnants of the circular formal villa garden in which fruit trees planted in the nineteenth century are still growing.
The house is one of the last villas left in the Kings Cross precinct and is surrounded by high rise apartment buildings. It is in a poor state of repair and requires restoration, both of the building fabric and the substantial grounds that surround it.
The proposal that was approved by Sydney City Council in late 2002 divided the building into two substantial dwellings of approximately 700 sm each. The division line separates the old servants quarters and basement from the formal main house and allows for new extensions where the stables once stood, and to the south of the building. The format arrived at allows for the preservation and restoration of the main spaces within the villa and provides for modern services to be separately provided in new extensions. A third apartment is discretely located on the escarpment that separates the formal garden from Garden Island dockyard.
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