House
148 Ascot Vale Road Flemington, MOONEE VALLEY CITY
Canterbury Street and Dover Street
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The building at 148 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington is a single storey, with attic, timber bungalow style house constructed in 1915/6. It is a detached building in a landscaped setting with substantial front setback. The key elements of the place that contribute to the significance include the setting and the original form, materials and detailing of the building such as the tiled roof, weatherboard and roughcast walls, half-timbered and scalloped board detailing to gable ends, bay windows with casement sashes, exposed timber rafter ends and decorative timber brackets and central timber entry porch. The building has a high degree of intactness to the early twentieth century date of construction.
How is it significant?
148 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
The place is historically significant as an example of a residential phases of development in the early twentieth century when building abated considerably with the outbreak of WW1. The high degree of integrity and intactness of the place as a detached house in a landscaped setting demonstrates the early twentieth century suburban ideal for family living which was in reaction to the Victorian era, inner city, overcrowded terraces which had come to be considered slums. (Criteria A, B & D)
The building at 148 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington is aesthetically significant as an example of a competently designed timber bungalow style suburban house of high integrity and intactness. The key stylistic elements that can be seen at 148 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington include the gabled roof of terracotta tiling, shingled gables, roughcast and weatherboard walls, bay shaped window projections at the front with casement windows and Art Nouveau or Arts and Crafts detailing such as the attic, porch and bay window hood ornate timber brackets and stained-glass entry door panels. (Criteria E).
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House - Physical Description 1
The Site
The site is rectangular with a street frontage to Ascot Vale Road of 11.90m (39ft) and northern side boundary of 36.60m (120ft) fronting the bluestone paved Morton Lane. The area is approximately 436m2. The site slopes gently from a high point at the rear (east) falling to the street frontage (west).
There are two buildings on the site. The original house with rear extension and the second building a modern shed/garage in the south east corner of the site. The house has a front set back 7.60m (25ft) and side setbacks of approximately 1m on the south and less than a metre on the northern side.
The perimeter fence is timber paling to the adjoining properties and the northern boundary (Morton Lane) with a timber picket fence with central pedestrian gate fronting Ascot Vale Road. The north east corner of the site has metal double gates cutting the corner providing vehicle access to the rear yard. There is no crossover.
At the front of the house there is a lawn area divided by a central concrete path leading to the entrance porch. The lawn areas are bordered by bushes, shrubs and vines, all of which are overgrown. The rear yard, which is larger than the front area, is screened by the paling fence but would appear to be similarly planted with bushes, shrubs and vines and paved areas.
Building Style
Domestic architecture in first few decades of the twentieth century in Australia was going through considerable change with the Federation/Edwardian style gradually losing popularity while interest in the Bungalow style was rising. Consequently, many houses of this time are considered transitional with stylistic characteristics from both periods.
The suburban house of the early twentieth century was typically a detached building in a garden setting with a landscaped front garden. This ideal was a reaction to the Victorian era, inner city, overcrowded terraces which had come to be considered slums. The house at 148 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington was constructed at this time and is a typical example of these ideals.
The house fits broadly within the Bungalow style which includes many variants such as Californian, Arts and Crafts, Craftsman, Indian and British, 'these cosy looking houses combine Arts and Crafts concepts with the ideal of the simple house in a natural setting. More rustic than preceding styles, most are single storey with a simple plan centred on the hallway and are set well back from the street'.
Although the buildings are usually single storey, some have attics. Typically, they have exposed rafters under the verandah and wide eaves. Timber shingles or scalloped weatherboards were commonly employed in the gable ends and typical of the Californian bungalow there is structural carpentry employed.
Bay windows were a common feature as are casement windows. The upper part of windows was usually distinguished with smaller window panes or with some stained-glass decoration and lead lighting. This exact detail can be seen in the bay windows on the front facade of 148 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington.
The term bungalow developed in India during the British Raj. It was used to refer to single storey houses with commodious verandahs, however by the turn of the twentieth century it was being applied in the USA to various types of houses which were suited a causal style of living. As such the term bungalow has come to mean a certain type of house, the definition of which is broad, as well as an architectural style. The Arts and Crafts type are varied but Craftsman type is usually a single-ridged, gabled house with attic rooms.
Bungalow style includes key design elements that can be seen at 148 Ascot Vale Road, Flemington including gabled roofs of terracotta tiling, shingled gables, roughcast and weatherboard walls, bay shaped window projections at the front with casement windows and Art Nouveau or Arts and Crafts detailing such as the attic, porch and bay window hood ornate timber brackets and stained-glass entry door panels.
The Building
The main building is detached weatherboard Californian Bungalow. It is a simple rectangle in plan form with two bay windows and a projecting porch to the main facade (west elevation). It is a timber framed single storey with attic building with terracotta tile clad roof. The external cladding is generally weatherboard with roughcast detailing above a weatherboard dado to the main facade.
The symmetrical facade has a bay window with hood over and gable roof above either side of the central entrance porch. Above the central porch and entrance door is the strapped gable attic balcony with room behind. In comparing the original contract drawings with the current images of the building, it is noted how substantially intact the place is. Minor differences are evident including the turned timber posts and frieze of the front porch differing from that as originally constructed. Interestingly, it was initially constructed with double posts and an arched timber frieze yet the contract drawing indicates a simple single post form with timber bracket, not too dissimilar to what exists today. Other decorative timber details, including expressed rafter ends and decorative timber brackets remain intact.
Most of the stylistic elements of the facade remain intact. These include the weatherboard cladding to dado height with roughcast finish to the walls above dado; the scalloped boards in the gable ends and the strapped roughcast panels in the attic gable end. The original doors and windows remain intact with the two bay windows with timber framed casements and smaller fixed panes above. The entrance panel door with side and high lights remains intact. Two of the original brick chimneys with rendered capping remain but the third original chimney on the rear wall appears to have been demolished.
The attic with gable over the balcony also remains intact to the original form. It also retains original decorative elements including scalloped weatherboards, roughcast gable end and Arts and Crafts style chunky timber brackets and posts. The wide eave of the main roof form and the attic roof have exposed rafter ends with eaves gutter and terracotta roof tiles above.
The north elevation also remains substantially intact with the only changes being minor alterations to the windows and the addition of the lean-to at the rear.
The south elevation is not readily visible due to close proximity to the side fence and the location of the modern building adjacent. It is assumed to be largely intact to the original form similarly to the north elevation.
The current two-tone colour scheme of the building exterior is appropriate to the period although it is not known what the original colours were.
Heritage Study and Grading
148 Ascot Vale Road - Final Report - 16 March 2018
Author: Frontier Heritage
Year: 2018
Grading: ContributoryHouse - Permit Exemption Policy
City of Moonee Valley Permit Exemptions Policy - Heritage Overlay Precincts, February 2017
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