Victorian original, modern heart.

“Its amazing first impression is the flow,” Martin says. “It’s a heritage house, but with a side entrance, so there’s no dividing central corridor - just big rooms linked together and opening to the outside.”

That quality was immediately apparent when the current owners (Martin and Martyn) first walked through more than 20 years ago. For Martyn, it was the combination of grandeur and liberation that made the impression. “I fell in love with its Victorian elements, but inside, the spaces had been opened up and liberated from small, dark rooms into something seamless,” he says. “The previous owner was a master builder, and because we were both travelling a lot for demanding careers at the time, it became our treasured retreat from the world.”

Originally built for an Irish sea captain, ‘Melford’ is one of Stanmore’s substantial survivors, dating from the period after the railway arrived and Sydney was enjoying a period of prosperity. Its north-facing façade, high ceilings, fireplaces and original Jarrah floors retain the gravitas of the era, while the scale of the interiors and connection to the outdoors make the home feel remarkably suited to contemporary family life.

The suburb history has its own complicated trajectory. Many of the grand homes built during the suburb’s prosperous years were later divided into boarding houses, before some were eventually restored to their original purpose.

“Stanmore still has a few remaining wonderful double-storey high Victorian homes like ours,” Martin says. “It’s become quite gentrified, especially over our 21 years here, but it still remains very eclectic. It’s quite a progressive mix, and we like that.”

For Martyn, caring for a house with this history has meant understanding what to preserve as much as what to change. Major structural improvements had already been completed when they bought the property, leaving them with a home that could evolve around their lives rather than demand constant intervention.

“That provides an essentially maintenance-free time here,” Martyn says. “But with history, you’ve still got to keep an eye on preserving its condition and integrity."

It also became an unlikely gallery over the years, providing a setting for emerging Australian artists and modernist furniture, its period architecture offering a considered counterpoint to more contemporary pieces.

It is a fitting environment for two people whose professional lives have been deeply creative. Martin’s career has spanned acting, media and the arts, while Martyn has established himself as a successful makeup artist. Yet the house has deliberately remained separate from that working world - less studio than sanctuary.

Some of the most enduring moments have been quieter still. For Martin: “Nothing beats catching up on reading early in the morning in the front bay window, with the sun flooding in from the trees on Cavendish Street.”

It’s clear the house can shift effortlessly from solitude to full-scale entertaining. Its separate living, dining and family spaces provide room for different generations and gatherings to occupy the house at once, while the bi-fold doors dissolve the boundary between dining room, terrace and garden.

One of their earliest Christmases demonstrated just how well it could stretch to accommodate family. Martin’s Adelaide relatives filled the four bedrooms, while overflow extended to a neighbouring friend’s home.

“There was a super-long table reaching from the terrace under the awning, through the bi-fold doors and into the dining room,” Martin says. “Lunch slowly turned to dinner.”

There have been birthdays, long lunches and countless dinners since.

The gardens are an important part of that equation, cleverly retained as usable areas rather than becoming another layer of maintenance. Private lawns, a hedged backyard and a series of terraces and balcony settings create different places to gather, play or retreat.

When the home was recently repainted, what might be an ordinary task became an exercise in responding to character rather than neutralising it.

“It was so stimulating to choose appropriate but bold and expressive colours,” Martyn says. “So different from most things in this monochrome world.”

That willingness to embrace character is strong beyond the front gate. Cavendish Street is leafy and residential, but Enmore Road is only a couple of blocks away, bringing with it the eclectic nightlife, music and independent shops that define this part of the Inner West.

“We’ll miss the bars, restaurants and vibrant styles of Enmore Road, virtually two blocks away and yet quiet from where we are,” Martin says. “And I’ll miss Sydney Park with the dog.”

Their neighbourhood recommendations include some familiar rituals: Cow & The Moon for gelato and coffee, Firepop, Cairo for Egyptian street food, La Ricetta, the Dendy in Newtown and the area's vintage shops. The Enmore Theatre has also become a focal point for the renewed energy of the street.

After more than two decades, however, the hardest part of leaving is not the architecture or even the daily rituals. It is the people.

Martin hopes whoever comes next will understand that ‘character’ extends beyond these walls.

“I hope they’ll reach out to the people who live around here, enjoy the diversity of people, ages, talents and jobs along Cavendish Street, and contribute to the local community,” he says.

“Make friends from people you might not think were your type.”

More than 140 years since ‘Melford’ was built, that may be its most enduring quality of all.

View the listing: 50 Cavendish Street, Glebe