Situated on the corner of Remuera Road and Glen Esk Place, Dr Talbot’s House (Former), built in circa 1918, is a simple example of the English Arts and Crafts style of architecture, designed by James Lloyd. Its simple frontage belies an elaborate rear elevation, which had a prominent three-storey loggia, facing the garden. It has aesthetic and architectural significance as a good example of the Arts and Crafts style, which dominated up-market domestic architecture in the early twentieth century. It also has significance as a design by James T. D. Lloyd, a lower-tier, but nevertheless successful architect in the Auckland area during this time; and for its connections with the lives of relatively prominent members of Remuera society.

Remuera has been associated with the settlement of rich and successful Aucklanders since the middle of the nineteenth century. The architectural legacy of this suburb has included notable contributions by successful practitioners of the legal and medical profession. The development of the site to an urban environment started in 1853 with a Crown Grant to a Mr A. B. Abraham. The land was eventually conveyed to a Mrs. J. M. Lennox; she had the land subdivided and offered for sale in 1916. Dr Alfred G. Talbot, a medical practitioner and former Assistant Director of medical services of the Auckland Military District during the First World War (1914-18) acquired the land and commissioned architect James T. D. Lloyd to erect a house for him. Plans were submitted to the Council in early 1918.

The building erected for Dr Talbot is typical of a house designed in the simple Arts and Crafts style. At the front of the building, the rough-cast elevation is broken up by multi-paned casement windows, of uneven size. The windows are also not on a uniform plane, giving the impression of a much altered English country cottage. The main feature of the rear of the building is a three-storey loggia, providing covered balcony space for some of the north-facing rooms and forming a distinct hipped gable in the centre of the north-facing elevation.

Alfred Talbot and his wife lived in this building until his death in the late 1950s. In the 1920, gatherings held at the house included an executive meeting of the New Zealand League of Mothers, at which the Dominion president, Lady Alice Fergusson, took the chair. Another gathering involved the Auckland branch of the Federation of University Women. Mrs Talbot had earlier been a principal of Nelson Girls’ College.

In 1959, the property passed to Leigh Talbot and Graeme Talbot. That year, when the property was sold to Stephen and Dorothy Bailey, unspecified alterations to the interior were carried out. In 1963, an application was made to ‘extend the garage’ underneath the northwestern corner of the house. The house passed through the hands of several owners in the 1970s and 1980s. With the acquisition of the house by David Nathan, a large garage building, with a small living space above was constructed between 1994 and 1996. At the same time, plans for large alterations to the garden and terrace, situated on a separate title immediately to the north, were drawn up. The house currently (2015) remains in use as a private residence.