Yarraberg Precinct
Appleton Street and Blazey Street and Burnley Street and Crown Street RICHMOND, YARRA CITY
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Statement of Significance
Yarraberg Precinct, comprising 2-38 Appleton Street, 13-31 Blazey Street, 97-133 Burnley Street, and 9-39 & 12-30 Crown Street, is significant. The Township of Yarraberg was laid out in the early 1850s by investor William Francis Splatt, on the banks of the Yarra River near a crossing to Hawthorn. Sales of land along North, Crown, River and Bridge (now Blazey) streets began in 1853. Pre-1855 house construction was concentrated near the river, but this has been replaced by 20th-century industrial development.
The current housing stock is primarily Victorian-era and Edwardian-era houses and shops, with a number of well preserved examples from the immediate post First-War era. Many of them are small cottages that housed workers who found employment in the nearby industrial areas, including David Mitchell's 'Doonside' industrial estate just to the north.
Contributory buildings have typically:
- Pitched gabled (mainly Edwardian-era) or hipped (mainly Victorian-era) roofs;
- One storey wall heights;
- Weatherboard, some brick or stucco walls;
- Corrugated iron, with some slate roofing;
- Chimneys of either stucco finish (with moulded caps) or of matching face brickwork with corbelled capping courses;
- Post-supported verandah elements facing the street; and
- Less than 40% of the street wall face comprised with openings such as windows and doors.
Contributory elements also include:
- Small front gardens, bordered by low front fences, typically of timber picket.
- Public infrastructure, expressive of the Victorian and Edwardian-eras such as stone pitched lane paving, kerbs and channels, and asphalt paved footpaths.
The following buildings are of individual significance to the precinct: 2-6 & 24 Appleton Street, 97-105 Burnley Street, and HO248 - 9-17 Crown Street.
How it is significant?
The Yarraberg Precinct is of local aesthetic and historical significance to the City of Yarra.
Why it is significant?
The precinct is of historical significance as a tangible illustration of Yarraberg, one of the first group of residential estates in the City, set in place by the 1850s at a crossing of the Yarra River as distinct from those early Richmond residential areas that grew because of proximity to Melbourne Town. During the 19th century the Yarraberg settlement was always known as a separate entity to the rest of the Richmond Municipality, and this identity was still strong during the interwar period. As it was located next to the early Richmond industrial centre, its development included small cottages to house workers, who found employment nearby, as well as shops on Burnley Street to serve the locals. (Criterion A)
Yarraberg Precinct provides a good representation of working class housing of the Victorian era, most of them small-scale and constructed of timber with detailing standard to their era. To a lesser extent, it represents Edwardian housing, much of it in the form of duplexes with prominent and decorative front gables, and timber California Bungalows of the interwar era. The commercial development on Burnley Street is also representative of these three eras. These three development eras correspond to the main growth periods seen across Richmond. (Criterion D)
A number of the Edwardian-era houses display unusual and attractive details, including the Tudor-style details of the duplexes at the corner of Appleton and Burnley streets (Individually Significant), and the Edwardian brick duplexes on Crown Street and those on Blazey Street with very distinctive bi-chrome brick chimneys. (Criterion E)
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Yarraberg Precinct - Physical Description 1
The Yarraberg Heritage Precinct has irregular boundaries, following the mostly Victorian and Edwardian streetscapes between east-west streets Appleton and Blazey, between the north-south streets of Burnley and Vaughan. That part of the estate east of Vaughan Street is now 20th-century industrial development. Some Victorian-era residential development survives on North Street, but has been heavily and unsympathetically altered, so has been excluded from the precinct.
The precinct includes largely modestly sized single and double-fronted residences, distributed equally in origin from among the Victorian and Edwardian-eras, with a small number of interwar infill development. Most of the Victorian houses are single-fronted timber cottages, many rows by a single builder, for example, alternating hipped and gable-fronted cottages at 19-23 and 29-31 Crown Street. There are also more substantial double-fronted Victorian timber houses at 18 and 38 Appleton Street and 39 Crown Street. Of particular interest is an early timber house at 21 Blazey Street, with a narrow transverse gable roof, beaded weatherboards, two-over-two windows, and an intact verandah. Another early terrace with no divisions in its roof is that at 109-113 Burnley Street, with its simply hipped and slated roof. (NB: The north end house at No. 107 was recently demolished.) Among the few Italianate style late Boom-style villas are 24 Appleton Street (Individually Significant), with its ornate cement detailing and projecting room bay, and the coloured brick version at 121 Burnley Street. The only two-storey Victorian houses in the precinct are Queen's Terrace of 1890, at 9-17 Crown Street (Individually Significant).
The duplex form became more prevalent in the Edwardian era. These include the pair of Federation-style brick duplexes at 20-26 Crown Street with unusual details such as red brick chimneys with cream brick caps, fishscale pressed metal shingles to the front gables and intact turned verandah posts and friezes. The same unique chimneys are also seen on the timber duplex at 25-27 Blazey Street. There are also two substantial and well detailed double-fronted houses of this era at 23 Blazey Street (timber) and 36 Appleton Street (brick). The houses at 37 Crown Street also retains fine late Edwardian timber verandah details. Individually Significant buildings from the Edwardian-era are the duplexes at 2-6 Appleton Street and 97-115 Burnley Street developed c1912 by Charlotte Kemp, and believed to have been designed by her husband, noted architect Henry Kemp.
There is a small number of California Bungalows from the interwar era. Two very handsome and intact examples are the double-fronted weatherboard houses at 13 and 17 Blazey Street.
There is some early commercial development along Burnley Street such as the Victorian-era shop & residence at No. 115, which sits alongside residential development. A handsome Edwardian-era two-storey commercial row stands out at 125-131 Burnley Street, adjoining a one storey corner grocer's shop at No. 133. There is a Moderne shop of the 1930s at No. 123, with incised horizontal speed lines in its rendered parapet.
Overall, the intactness of the buildings is high, with limited replacement of windows and loss of verandah details. The Edwardian weatherboard house at 32 Appleton Street has an intrusive upper storey addition, but still contributes to the precinct as it is half of a duplex with No. 34 (which is intact).
Heritage Study and Grading
Yarra - Heritage Gaps Study: Review of remaining 17 heritage precincts from the 2009 Gaps report
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 2013
Grading:Yarra - Heritage Gap Study
Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
Year: 2007
Grading:
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