Sheila Smith’s Victorian showstopper has wealth of memories

A historic bank is home to the next generation after interior designer Sheila Smith brought it back into the family fold.

The former London Chartered Bank at Hay in the Riverina. Picture: Rachael Lenehan

Interior designer Sheila Smith recalls spending many hours rollerblading around the former bank teller’s room of the historic London Chartered Bank at Hay in the Riverina, in the nineties.

“My brothers and I got up to lots of mischief in this house as children and always had so much fun,” says Smith.

She and husband Grant Volz purchased the former family premises last year and have done minor renovations and given new life to the furnishings.

The grand two-storey Victorian mansion has always been a showstopper.

On August 25, 1891, The Riverine Grazier described it as an “edifice and the most pretentious piece of architecture in the town reflecting a visible sign of progress”.

The London Chartered Bank later morphed into the London Bank of Australia, then the English Scottish Australian Bank Company.

Later agricultural company Goldsborough Mort took it over and Smith’s parents, the late Kyle Smith and wife Sally purchased it in 1972.

Interior designer Sheila Smith. Picture: Rachael Lenehan

“We feel incredibly privileged to be caretakers of this magnificent building for future generations and it’s been such a joy to decorate,” says Smith.

“It’s a testament to the wool boom days – to think that a London bank had so much confidence in the area to build a branch out here.

“I adore Victorian architecture and furniture, so it’s perfect.”

The Smith family spend weekdays at the house and the weekends at their nearby farm.

“We had the best of both worlds,” says Smith, who runs the upstairs floor as a small bed and breakfast like her mother did.

The house was renovated in the nineties by her parents and architect Greig Carter, adding a conservatory-style open plan living, dining and kitchen.

Smith has her studio office, dining room and living area on the ground floor and bedrooms and bathroom on the middle floor.

The bed and breakfast is on the top floor with two bedrooms, a cosy drawing room and renovated bathroom. There’s also a long balcony with views over the town.

“We use the servant’s staircase at the back while guests use the grander polished cedar staircase,” says Smith, who isoften shadowed by Jack Russells Dottie and Roy.

Says Sheila Smith: ‘I adore Victorian architecture and furniture, so it’s perfect.’ Picture: Rachael Lenehan

Striking wallpapers, timeless fabrics and layered rugs on the sisal floors star here with Indigenous, contemporary and classic artworks on the walls. The dining room is impressive with gloss emerald green panelling and a wall mural with towering trees and an endless sky. A 3.5m metre Victorian mahogany dining table and 12 upholstered balloon back chairs take centre stage.

The old bank vault is now used as a wine cellar with a large butcher’s block as a table.

Smith studied visual merchandising, then went to Western Australia where she cooked at several mines on a two and one roster when she studied interior design. She would fly to Victoria on her weeks off for work experience with some of Melbourne’s top designers and fabric houses.

“It was from one extreme to the other but all great experience,” she says.

Her business, Missmith Interiors, is known for bringing fresh looks to historic homesteads, stately houses and contemporary boltholes in the city, beach and country.

The heritage-style garden at the back of the house features old-fashioned roses, camellias, gardenias and a big magnolia tree.

Two huge redwood veranda posts salvaged from the old Hay Hospital make a perfect outdoor bar for entertaining.

“The garden seems to have a microclimate, it’s always much cooler and a great place to escape the Hay summer heat,” Smith says.

“But what I love most is the history of the old bank and I often think – if only the walls could talk.”