Built in 1916 to the designs of architect Roy Keith Binney (1886-1957), Bankton house is a mixture of Neo-Georgian and Arts and Crafts styles and was heavily influenced by the eminent English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, under whom Binney studied in England. It was probably Binney’s last design in Auckland before he left the country to fight in the First World War (1914-18) and is significant in that, along with Guisnes Court opposite which was also designed by Binney, it helped bring the Arts and Crafts style into the domestic mainstream, whilst also maintaining Remuera’s reputation as one of the city’s most fashionably built suburbs. Binney is considered important for influencing a whole generation of Auckland architects and for ‘bringing to the city’s domestic architecture a greater sense of style than had previously been evident.’ He consciously designed in an English style, at a time when ties between New Zealand and Britain were strengthening during the First World War.

Remuera has been associated with the settlement of rich and successful Aucklanders since the middle of the nineteenth century. From about 1900, the palatial houses of the richest settlers of the 1800s made room for the smaller, but grander townhouses of the city’s commercial or industrial elite. The development of the site to an urban environment started in 1879 with the acquisition of large allotments in the area, amounting to over four acres. A small part of this land was acquired by Anne Lesley Cramond in 1915 and R. K. Binney, recently returned from working under the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in Europe, was commissioned to design a house for the site.

Lutyens’ influence can be seen in Binney’s design of Bankton; it particularly echoes Lutyens’ 1901 creation of Homewood House in Hertfordshire, England. The soaring roof planes clad with Marseilles tiles, red-brick chimneys and contrasting white painted timber exterior walls are of the English Arts and Crafts style, giving a country cottage quality to the building; however, much of the fenestration, such as the large, multi-pane, double-hung sash windows, is of Neo-Georgian styling. Both styles are an indication of Lutyens’ influence. The projecting front veranda and the distinctive Binney-designed vertical windows of the stairway firmly place this building in the twentieth century. The interior was comprised of around eleven rooms; about half of the ground floor space was taken up with an open-plan living room with connected lining room. There was originally space provided to house a butler and a maid. Work was completed in 1916 by another notable and up-and-coming Auckland architect, Horace Massey, after Binney had left for war service. Massey was awarded four New Zealand Institute of Architecture (NZIA) gold medals for his subsequent work, and also became a president of the NZIA.

After Anne Cramond’s death in 1932, the house passed through the hands of several owners. Later owners included a doctor and a dentist and there are indications that they based their practices here. Interior and minor exterior alterations occurred in the 1970s. In the late 1990s a new garage and ornamental gazebo were constructed. 2014 saw an application for Building Consent to conserve parts of the building. The house remains in use as a private dwelling.