Langley Hall (Bendigo)

Langley Hall is a mansion in the Federation architectural style, designed by the prolific Bendigo architects William Charles Vahland (1828–1915) and John Beebe (1866–1936).

[8] The architect for St Luke's Church was William Charles Vahland, who would design the mansion later named Langley Hall forty years later.

In December 1902, it was suggested that White Hills be selected as the site for the new "Bishopscourt" or "See House" as St Luke's Church "has two or three acres of land connected with it lying idle ...

The distance is barely three miles [from the Alexandra Fountain], but this is more than compensated for by a splendid road all the way, with a magnificent avenue of trees, making a suitable carriage drive to it.

After the resignation of John Langley in 1919 the next bishop, Donald Baker, relocated to a Victorian-era mansion on a site closer to the then Anglican cathedral in Forest Street.

[11] From 1919 to 1926 the Bishopscourt mansion was leased by the Australian Red Cross and housed returned soldiers from World War I, operating as the "Diggers" Red Cross Convalescent Home[12] for returned Australian soldiers suffering shell shock and other mental and physical injuries sustained during the war.

It was opened in the mansion on 3 December 1919 by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, wife of the Governor General of Australia and president and founder of the Australian branch of the Red Cross.

Although, in the 1950s, inspectors from the Children's Welfare Department described the buildings as "large" and "old-fashioned", it is probable the institutional use of the property saved the Langley Estate from demolition and subdivision through the 1960s and 1970s.

[20] After a short period in the early 1980s when the various buildings on the Langley Estate were unoccupied and its future was uncertain, the property passed from the Diocese of Bendigo into private ownership and was used as a restaurant and reception centre.