Parlington Estate Residential Precinct
2-32 Allenby Road and 1-17 Allenby Road and 3-9, 8 Gascoyne Street and 1-27 Parlington Street and 2-44 Parlington Street and 1-31 Torrington Street and 836-876 Burke Road CANTERBURY and 836-876 Burke Road HAWTHORN EAST and 9-17 Canterbury Road CAMBERWELL,
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
Parlington Estate Residential Precinct is significant. It comprises 2-32 & 1-17 Allenby Road; 3-9 & 8 Gascoyne Street; 1-27 & 2-44 Parlington Street; and 1-31 Torrington Street, Canterbury; 836-876 & 1063-1081 Burke Road, Canterbury & Hawthorn East; 9-17 Canterbury Road, Camberwell. The estate was created in 1912 from a subdivision of two Victorian-mansion estates: 'Parlington' and 'Torrington'. Beginning in 1913 the estate developed rapidly, and was almost entirely complete in a single decade. Local builder George Simpson was responsible for three rows of distinctive semi-detached houses, massed as single villas with elaborate Arts & Crafts detail, along Burke Road and Torrington Street.
The properties at 11, 14, 18 & 24 Allenby Road (apart from the mature Algerian Oak tree at no. 11), 19, 22, 30-34 & 42 Parlington Street, and 31 Torrington Street are Non-contributory. The remaining properties are Contributory.
The mature street trees and trees in private gardens planted during the interwar period are also contributory. The street trees include London Plane (Platanus x acerifolia) and Prickly-leaves Paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides) on Parlington Street; London Plane trees, Pin Oaks (Quercus palustris), and some Oriental Plan trees (Paltanus orientalis) on Torrington Street; and Narrow-leaved Paperbark, also known as Snow-in-Summer (Melaleuca linarifolia) Allenby Road. Contributory trees in private gardens include an Elm (probably Dutch Elm, Ulmus x hollandica), an Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica), a Bhutan Cypress (Cupressus torulosa), and a multi-stemmed native evergreen at 9 Canterbury Road; Sweet Gum trees (Liquidamber styraciflua) at 4, 5, 10, 11, 25, 29, 40 & 44 Parlington Street; and Algerian Oaks (Quercus canariensis) at 5 & 11 Allenby Road.
How is it significant?
Parlington Estate Residential Precinct is of local historical, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
Parlington Estate Residential Precinct is historically significant for demonstrating the break-up and subdivision of Victorian-era mansion estates during the interwar period, 'Parlington' and 'Torrington' (both demolished) have lent their names to two streets in the 1912 subdivisions. As the subdivision was in a central area of Camberwell, along a tram line and near the train station, subsequent development was quite rapid, giving the precinct a high degree of visual and stylistic cohesiveness. The precinct also clearly demonstrated the importance of local builders/developers, such as George Simpson and Henry Hutchison, who rapidly built up entire unified streetscapes. (Criterion A)
Parlington Estate Residential Precinct comprises the finest concentration of late Edwardian and early interwar residential development in Boroondara which demonstrates the strong influence of the Arts & Crafts movement on Australian architecture in the 1910s and early 1920s, with its emphasis on varied textures and materials, heavy and sculptural verandah timbers, and strong massing of roof forms. The houses also demonstrate the transition from Edwardian Queen Anne to the bungalow styles that so characterise the interwar period. There is also a fine example of a Georgian Revival house at 9 Canterbury Road, a style that existed concurrently with the bungalow styles, but was usually designed by architects instead of builders, so is less commonly seen. (Criterion D)
Parlington Estate Residential Precinct is aesthetically significant as a whole for its cohesive yet picturesque varied rows of semi-detached and free-standing houses, with consistent setbacks behind lush front gardens. The rows of semi-detached houses by builder George Simpson on Burke Road and Torrington Street are particularly distinctive. The high level of intact ornament, particularly timber verandah detail, enhances the precinct's picturesque quality. The street trees and trees in private gardens planted during the interwar period are aesthetically significant for providing an appropriate and attractive setting for the interwar houses in the precinct, and for illustrating both popular species during this period and the informal, picturesque pattern of plantings popular at the time. (Criterion E)
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Parlington Estate Residential Precinct - Physical Description 1
Description & Integrity
Parlington Estate Residential Precinct was almost wholly developed during the ten years between 1913 and 1923, and thus contains a wealth of buildings that illustrate late Edwardian-era domestic design and its transition to the bungalow styles. Almost all houses are of face brick, often combined with roughcast render, with a few entirely rendered and even fewer built of timber Houses are generally set back behind medium-sized front gardens are freestanding. The exceptions are the large number of semi-detached houses, which dominate the Burke Road sections of the precinct, and also appear on Torrington Street. While this denser development reflects their proximity to the Burke Road tramline, they are all massed asymmetrically to resemble single-family villas and thus a more 'respectable' type of house.
As noted in the History, these semi-detached pairs were built in 1915-15 and 1917 by local builder George William Simpson, and these houses share consistent details such as chimney designs, but exhibit picturesque variety in massing and decorative detail. The first group (1914-15) are massed like Federation Queen Anne houses, with a high tiled hipped roof and projecting gabled bays to the front (at the middle, corner or side of the semi-detached pair). Most on the west side of Burke Road are distinguished by witch's hat towers. Nearly all of them retain distinctive Arts & Crafts verandah decoration, including heavy turned posts and solid timber friezes with incised patterns. Walls are a combination of tuckpointed red brick and roughcast render. Projecting gables are half-timbered or shingled and often sit above a bow window, and there is extensive use of leadlights.
The Arts & Crafts style is also expressed in other early houses, including the unusual semi-detached pair at 2-4 Allenby Road and the row of fine attic-storey bungalows at 3-7 Gascoyne Street. The attic-storey bungalow form is also seen at 28 and 44 Parlington Street. The two attic-storey bungalows of 1919 at 25 & 27 Parlington Street, built by Henry Hutchison, are distinguished by the strut-like eaves brackets and the very large pictorial leadlight window beside each front door. The original central dormer window on the front slope of the roof of 25 Parlington Street was demolished and replaced with a pair of dormers in 1982. It appears that the details of the original dormer were copied, as they are very similar to an original dormer at number 21.
Around the same time, more typical Federation Queen Anne villas were being built, such as 11, 13 & 15 Canterbury Road, 3 &16 Parlington Street, 29 Torrington Street, and 1063 Burke Road (which predates the Parlington subdivision by several years, but is similar to others of this style). They are differentiated from the Queen Anne duplexes with Arts & Crafts verandah detail by their more delicate verandah posts and fretwork. The fine corner villa at 15 Canterbury Road is distinguished by its double-pyramidal slate roof and the use of Tuscan columns for the verandah.
Moving into the interwar period, there are a number of typical and less typical single-storey Arts & Crafts and California Bungalows, with simple gable-fronted or transverse roofs, heavy timber or masonry porch piers, and simpler porch fretwork (if any). Some of the more typical examples include: 8 & 20 Allenby Road (No. 20 is a rare timber house with an attractive arched porch frieze), 40 Parlington Street, and the group at 23-27 Torrington Street. Some examples with less typical details include: 1 Parlington Street, which has scalloped timber shingles in the front gable; and 36 Parlington Street, which has a jerkin-head roof and buttressed semi-circular corner window.
There are also examples of other interwar styles. These include the very fine Georgian Revival house at 9 Canterbury Road of 1923 with its long facade, roughcast rendered walls, window shutters and terracotta shingled roof, and the modest Mediterranean Revival house at 17 Canterbury Road of 1919 with its hipped roof and arcades front porch. The two-storey house at 2 Parlington Street is an unusual example from the end of this period, built in 1938 its wall are a mix of red brick and misshapen, overfired black bricks creating a textured bichrome surface. The house is a simple Moderne style.
There is a generally high level of intactness both of streetscapes (with few Non-contributory properties) and of the houses themselves. A very high proportion retain their timber verandah fretwork, giving the precinct a distinct aesthetic character. Verandahs have been altered at: 6 & 13 Allenby Road (both also have altered windows), and 848-850 Burke Road. Dormers or visible upper-storey additions have been added to 12, 13, 26 & 38 Parlington Street.
The precinct retains a fine collection of trees planted during the interwar period, both street trees and those in the front gardens of houses. The street trees comprise a mix of species popular at the time the precinct was established, with a number of replacements over time. Typically a couple of species have been chosen for each street and planted at regular intervals but not in a formal pattern. Parlington Street features London Plane (Platanus x acerifolia) and Prickly-leaves Paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides). Torrington Street has London Plane trees, Pin Oaks (Quercus palustris), and some Oriental Plan trees (Paltanus orientalis). Allenby Road features Narrow-leaved Paperbark, also known as Snow-in-Summer (Melaleuca linarifolia).
The Georgian Revival house at 9 Canterbury Road retains a good collection of mature trees, including an Elm (probably Dutch Elm, Ulmus x hollandica), an Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica), a Bhutan Cypress (Cupressus torulosa), and a multi-stemmed native evergreen whose species has not been identified. There is a number of large Sweet Gum trees (Liquidamber styraciflua) standing before houses along Parlington Street (nos. 4, 5, 10, 11, 25, 29, 40 & 44). Sweet Gum was a very popular garden tree of the interwar period. Finally, there are mature Algerian Oaks (Quercus canariensis) in the front gardens of 5 and 11 Allenby Road.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study: Vol. 1 Canterbury
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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AUBURN PRIMARY SCHOOL NO.2948Victorian Heritage Register H1707
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PARLINGTONVictorian Heritage Register H0731
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FROGNALLVictorian Heritage Register H0707
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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'NORWAY'Boroondara City
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1 Mitchell StreetYarra City
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