St Johns Wood is a heritage-listed villa at 31 Piddington Street, Ashgrove, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

[2] St John's Wood, a single storey residence, primarily built of local granite, was constructed in the mid-1860s for Daniel Rowntree Somerset.

The Gap pastoral station, watered by Enoggera Creek and extending west towards the Taylor Range, was taken up by Darby McGrath in 1851 to run sheep.

By the following year McDougall was the major landholder along Enoggera Creek and remained owner of Portions 164 and 165 until they passed to auctioneer Arthur Martin in 1863.

For much of the 1850s he was a general merchant in partnership with John Richardson and was prominent in civic affairs, including the push for Separation of Queensland from New South Wales.

In December 1859, he was appointed Chief Clerk and Shipping Master of the Port of Brisbane, a post he held until his retirement in 1876.

Key elements of villa estates included large and comfortable houses, associated outbuildings such as servant's quarters and stabling, expansive garden settings, and a good road to town.

No greater proof of the prosperity of a city as a whole can be afforded than that derived from the disposition of its citizens to plant and build on its environs, and to make it their home socially as well as professionally.

Joshua Jeays, a prominent Brisbane contractor, who designed and built the nearby villa Bardon House in 1863, has previously been linked to St. John's Wood but no firm evidence to support this has been identified.

The following month Daniel Somerset advertised the property for sale or let, describing the residence as "a substantial and well-finished Stone Dwelling House of eight rooms, and the necessary outbuildings, all in a state of thorough repair, and suitable for a respectable family".

[1][13] George Rogers Harding was born on 3 December 1838 at Taunton, Somerset, England and undertook his legal training prior to immigrating to Australia.

Over the course of his career, Harding was respected for his "scrupulously fair" judgements, except when his harsh sentences for unionists convicted during the conspiracy trial after the 1891 shearer's strike made him unpopular.

Author of six legal books and a noted bibliophile, Harding played a large part in establishing the Supreme Court's library.

The need for extra space at St John's Wood was influenced by the size of the Harding family; of 15 children born, 12 survived George and Emily.

Contemporary reports extensively covered their busy three-day schedule and while they did attend a ministerial picnic at the Enoggera Waterworks (and thus had an opportunity to visit riding there and back) there is no record of any time spent at St John's Wood.

A later visit by George V and his wife Mary in 1901 during their Federation tour is even more unlikely, as no Hardings resided at St John's Wood by this time.

The stories of the royal visits appear to have been a way of marketing Francis Anglim's "high class suburb", when the property was subdivided in the 1920s (see below).

In the months after his death, the household furniture and effects of St John's Wood were sold off, "the result of good taste and the accumulation of a lifetime".

[23] In 1898 ownership of the land passed from administrators of Harding's estate, the Union Trustee Company of Australia, to the Queensland National Bank.

Post Office Directories record James Pitkeathly at St Johns Wood from 1906 to 1910–11; the 1908 entry mentions a dairy, so this may have been how the land was being used at the time.

War-related fundraising functions were held at St John's Wood in 1915, but the resident of the house is not identified in reports of these events.

When Jules and Judithann Guerassimoff purchased the house in 1968, the 92 metres (302 ft) of continuous verandah had been partially enclosed and the former ballroom was in use as a workshop.

[1][27] St John's Wood is a single storey residence, square in plan and built of granite with a hipped roof originally sheeted with timber shingles, now replaced with corrugated iron.

The 1860s stone residence is significant for its aesthetic quality, craftsmanship and intactness, including the internal cedar joinery, skylight, pressed metal ceilings throughout, stonework and original beech floors.

The 1860s stone residence is significant for its aesthetic quality, craftsmanship and intactness, including the internal cedar joinery, skylight, plaster ceiling roses, stonework and original beech floors.