HOUSES & SHOP
34-40 NICHOLSON STREET, ESSENDON, MOONEE VALLEY CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The shop and houses at 34-40 Nicholson Street, Essendon, are significant. They were built 1890-92 for James Taylor, an accountant who moved to Essendon in 1860 and worked for McCracken's Brewery for 30 years, as well as serving as a long-time member of the Essendon Council and three times mayor. He resided across the street as 'Kinneil' (No. 33). The corner shop, at No. 40, housed Mrs E Brown's bookshop until 1918, after which she ran a confectioner's shop there.
All of the buildings have polychrome brick walls and chimneys and slate roofs with diaper bands.
The shop and attached dwelling at Nos. 40-38 are gable-fronted, and the corner shop retains its timber-framed shop windows.
The villas at No. 34 ('Plassey') and No. 36 (believed to be 'Cliveden') are double-fronted with M-hip roofs. No. 36 has an ogee-profile verandah roof and cast-iron columns and frieze, as well as zig-zag pattern quoining. No. 34 has an unusual facade composition with two projecting gabled bays and a central recessed porch beneath the roofline. Its polychrome brickwork is hidden beneath overpainting.
Later alterations and additions are not significant.
How is it significant?
The shop and houses are of local architectural and historical significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
They are of architectural significance for the visual cohesion and fine detailing of the buildings. Details of note include the rectilinear corbelled chimneys with cream and red banding, the 'half-timbering' detail to the gables of the attached shop and dwelling at Nos. 40-38, the intact ogee-profile verandah and zig-zag quoining of No. 36, and the unusual configuration of the facade of No. 34. The shop at No. 40 is rare in the Moonee Valley context for its high level of intactness, particularly the retention of its timber-framed shop windows. (Criteria E & B)
The corner shop (No. 40) is historically significant as an intact late 19th-century neighbourhood corner store which is a tangible demonstration of a bygone aspect of pre-WWII life: Prior to widespread car ownership and home refrigeration, neighbourhood corner stores were an important amenity in residential areas, where day-to-day needs could be purchased. (Criterion A)
The buildings are also of historic interest for their association with James Taylor, a prominent resident of Essendon in the 19th century.
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HOUSES & SHOP - Physical Description 1
The buildings at 34-40 Nicholson Street stand on the south-east corner of Nicholson and Raleigh streets. All four buildings are constructed in tuckpointed polychrome brick - brown Hawthorns with accents in cream and red, with slate-clad roofs with diaper bands. The four are particularly distinctive for their rectilinear corbelled chimneys with cream and red banding.
No. 40 Nicholson Street is a single-storey corner shop built to its lot boundaries. The distinctive front gable with half-timbering pattern in bichrome brick and lobed bargeboard is repeated on a smaller gable facing Raleigh Street. The large timber-framed shop windows to the front of the store are retained; however the door to the splayed front corner has been replaced. Four residential-scale double-hung windows are located along the Raleigh Street facade with cream brick flat arches, basalt sills and cream bands at lintel height. The side door has also been replaced.
No. 38 Nicholson Street is a dwelling attached to the south side of the shop, set back behind a small front garden with sympathetic reproduction palisade fence. It echoes the shop in its form and details, including the unusual 'half-timbering' detail of bichrome brick to the front gable. The porch is entered via a red brick arch with moulded cream bricks at the springing. The porch floor has basalt edging and tessellated tiles. The entrance door is highlighted with ruby flashed glass with a design of a basket of flowers. An ornate timber and cast-iron hood sits over the front window which has a double-hung sash with sidelights. The brickwork has been recently tuckpointed and incorporates a band of cream brick at sill height and above the rock-faced basalt plinth.
No. 36 Nicholson Street is a freestanding double-fronted symmetrical villa set back from the street behind a garden with sympathetic reproduction palisade fence. The building has an M-hip roof and an ogee-profiled verandah clad in corrugated iron with a central pediment marking the entry. The verandah is supported by cast-iron columns and finished with a cast-iron frieze, and has a timber floor. A four-panel door with cricket bat mouldings, sidelights and highlights is set back in a recessed entry flanked by sash windows with sidelights and basalt sills. There are zig-zag cream brick voussoirs to the windows and corners.
No. 34 Nicholson Street is a freestanding double-fronted villa set back from the street behind a garden with a non-original low red-brick fence. The facade is unusual, having two projecting gabled bays with a central recessed porch beneath the roofline. The porch beam retains timber dentils. The porch floor has basalt edging and tessellated tiles. The brick has been overpainted, and the front windows and door and surrounds replaced, but the house is still recognisably part of the row thanks to its slated M-hip roof (with diaper bands) and distinctive polychrome chimneys.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - Moonee Valley Heritage Study
Author: Context Pty Ltd, 2015
Year: 2015
Grading: LocalMoonee Valley - City of Moonee Valley Stage 1 Heritage Gap Study
Author: Context PL
Year: 2013
Grading:
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