CAMBERWELL ROAD ESTATE PRECINCT
458-486 Camberwell Road and 1-1A Acheron Avenue and 2-6 Acheron Avenue CAMBERWELL, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The Camberwell Road Estate Precinct, comprising 1-1A & 2-6 Acheron Avenue and 458-486 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, is significant. The land comprising the precinct and the surrounding area was originally William Newnham's farm, from about 1870. He subdivided part of his land in 1888, a parcel known as Newnham's Orchard, in 1888, which created the Camberwell Road Estate. Further subdivision around Acheron Avenue took place in the early 1920s.
The housing stock of the precinct was built rapidly in the decade following subdivisions in 1926. The precinct is comprised of interwar masonry houses (all detached apart from one maisonette pair at 1-1A Acheron Avenue).
The properties at 458, 460 and 470 Camberwell Road are Significant. The remainder of the properties are Contributory, apart from 476 Camberwell Road which is Non-contributory.
How is it significant?
The precinct is of local historic, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
Historically, the precinct is a tangible illustration of the division of large residential holdings in Camberwell during the interwar period when this part of Camberwell was the focus of substantial suburban growth. This contrasts with the small amount of development that took place during the late 19th and early 20th century in the area, despite the subdivision of part of Newnham's Orchard in 1888. The integration of a garage into house designs, as seen at 458 and 470 Camberwell Road, is also of interest an innovation that began to be seen in the 1930s, indicating the growing importance of cars. (Criterion A)
Architecturally, the houses in the precinct are superior examples of styles popular during the late 1920s and the 1930s, including California Bungalow, Interwar Mediterranean and Tudor/Old English houses. The houses exhibit a high level of intactness, including the retention of matching front fences to almost all houses. (Criterion D)
Aesthetically, the precinct is significant as a collection of houses with a high level of intact decorative detail, seen particularly among the Tudor/Old English houses (at 1-1A & 2A-4 Acheron Avenue; and 458 & 470 Camberwell Road) with their picturesquely varied brickwork. The precinct is also distinguished by the large scale of most of the Camberwell Road houses, which are even more prominent due to their elevated siting
Individually Significant houses in the precinct have their own aesthetic significance. Stratford, at 458 Camberwell Road is a fine and generally intact example of an interwar suburban residence combining contemporary Tudor references. The careful integration of a garage into the front elevation of the house is of note and the survival of the original fence and driveway configuration contributes to the setting of the house.
470 Camberwell Road is a very picturesque example of the Tudor/Old English style with a very steep central gable. There are numerous cladding materials adding visual interest, including ruled render to the front gable with accents of tapestry brick bats to the eaves and the entrance arch, random stone rubble to the base of the front porch and steps, and a broad band of cream bricks below the diamond-pane windows. Below this band, on the left-hand side of the facade, is a garage which appears to be original. The eclectic mix of forms and materials reflects its purpose as an 'advertisement' of the skills of local builders, the Ameys, who owned and constructed it.
460 Camberwell Road is a substantial Interwar Mediterranean Revival by designer-builder A Mortimer McMillan. Cordova-pattern roof tiles and textured stucco on the walls give it a Spanish Mission flavour. Distinctive details include a Serlian window with bevelled glass, and unusual chimneys with an intricate fluted shaft and cap. The house has an extremely long facade which gives it a landmark quality, enhanced by its corner site, deep garden setback and front fence. Presentation of all the Camberwell Road houses is enhanced by their elevated position above the road. The retention of original front fences and generally consistent setbacks throughout the precinct add to its appreciation. The large and well-formed mature oak tree in the front garden of 470 Camberwell Road enhances the appearance of this house and the streetscape. (Criterion E)
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CAMBERWELL ROAD ESTATE PRECINCT - Physical Description 1
The Camberwell Road Estate Precinct is roughly L-shaped in plan, with a long row of large houses set on the high side of Camberwell Road and extending into the north end of Acheron Avenue. On the opposite side of Camberwell Road is the Golf Links Estate (HO1), with a row of interwar houses of similar styles but a smaller scale.
Due to the angle at which Acheron Avenue meets Camberwell Road, there are a number of irregularly shaped blocks around the intersection and houses that are not set parallel to the street. Apart from this, front setbacks are fairly consistent, though the grandest of the interwar houses, 460 Camberwell Road, sits behind a very large front garden. Many of the interwar houses retain their original dwarf front brick fence, which range from the simple to the elaborate. Many also have an original or very early garage, usually set at the back of the block, but some are integrated into the house itself, which was an innovation of the 1930s.
Reflecting the eclecticism of the interwar era, there are a number of styles seen in the precinct despite its rapid development in a single decade. These can be put into three general groups that are consistent in style as well as time period. California Bungalows were some of the first houses to be built, all commenced in 1927. This was followed by houses that can be categorised as Interwar Mediterranean, commenced between 1927 and 1933, and then Tudor/Old English houses from 1933 onward.
The California Bungalows at 468, 472 and 474 Camberwell Road are modest in size and typical in their form and details. Typical of the style, some have a gable-fronted form (Nos. 472 & 474) and another has a transverse gable roof (No. 468), both with a front porch set below a minor gable. Nos. 468 and 472 are quite similar in detail, both with red brick walls and clinker brick accents, simplified half-timbering to the gables, and paired fluted columns on brick piers supporting the front porches. No. 474 has walls finished in roughcast render with shaped timber shingles to the front gables. The porch returns and is supported on tapered piers. Attic-storey rooms have been added to this house, but its original form is still clearly discernible. All three have box-frame windows, with simple leadlights to Nos. 472 and 474.
Another one of the early, 1927, houses, at 466 Camberwell Road can be called an Arts & Crafts bungalow, with its porch set behind two very large semi-circular arches picked out in face brick.
The largest stylistic group of houses in the precinct are examples of the Interwar Mediterranean style, or bear design similarities to it. They are 460, 464, 468, 478, 480 & 486 Camberwell Road and 2 & 6 Acheron Avenue. Typical of this style, classical details, particularly columns and arcades, are added to mostly hip-roof bungalows with smooth or textured render walls. This approach is seen at 2 & 6 Acheron Avenue and 480 Camberwell Road. Others have a more Spanish Mission influence, particularly 464 Camberwell Road, which is arcaded front porch and gabled chimney. Other houses in this group are similar in form, with a hip roof and a projecting hip-roof front porch on heavy masonry supports, as seen at 478 & 486 Camberwell Road, but they do not share the classical details.
The Significant house designed and built by A Mortimer McMillan, at 460 Camberwell Road, has Cordova-pattern roof tiles and textured stucco on the walls, giving it a Spanish Mission flavour. The base of the walls is of clinker brick. The front porch sits under a hip roof supported on heavy piers with curved masonry brackets, a flight of semicircular terrazzo steps before it, and Gothic lanterns on the piers. The front door has two generous sidelights. The chimneys are quite unusual in form, with an intricate fluted shaft and cap. The main front window grouping is Serlian in form, with a tall arched window (here with gothic tracery and bevelled-glass panes) surrounded by engaged columns and shorter double-hung sash windows (which also appear to have bevelled glass in their top sashes). The house has an extremely long facade which gives it a landmark quality, enhanced by its corner site, deep garden setback and front fence. The low front fence has a similar level of detail to the house, with a clinker brick plinth, and smooth rendered cap with roughcast render between. There is a cast garland detail on the piers which mark the entrance to and corners of the site.
The final group, of Tudor or Old English houses, includes: 1-1A & 2A-4 Acheron Avenue; and 458 & 470 Camberwell Road. These houses are characterised by their picturesque gabled forms, medieval influences, and the use of multiple brick sizes, colours and pattern for decorative interest.
The first of these houses to be built is the Significant house 'Strafford' at 458 Camberwell Road, of 1933. It is in clinker brick with two gabled wings, one single and the other two-storied. The roof is steeply pitched, clad in terra cotta Marseilles tiles and marked asymmetrically by two tall chimneys. The chimneys have plain corbelled tops giving a slight Tudor reference; other Tudor notes are in half timbering over the first floor level east bay and the garage gable below, and on the main upper gables. On the east gable half-timbering is combined with a herringbone pattern in Roman-thickness brick. On the garage, the half-timbering is coupled with shingles under the bargeboard. Tapestry brick forms voussoir and quoin patterns around the entry arch and porch. (See also individual place citation, HO373.)
The other houses in this style have moved to the vergeless gable with corbelled eaves, which became a signature Old English feature in the late 1930s, as compared to the projecting eaves finished with a bargeboard seen at Stratford. They are constructed predominantly of clinker brick, often with cream or tapestry brick accents. The house at 2A Acheron Avenue is distinguished by the highly decorative use of tapestry bricks and brick bats to suggest a medieval house patched and altered over time
The Significant house by owner-builders Harold, John and William Amey at 470 Camberwell Road is a picturesque confection of materials, which stand behind an enormous oak tree. The main roof has a transverse gable with vergeless, corbelled eaves at the ends. The front facade is dominated by an extremely steep projecting gable, also vergeless, which is balanced by a stepped chimney on the right-hand side of the facade. The chimney is of clinker brick with cream brick quoins. There are numerous cladding materials, adding to the picturesque effect. These include ruled render to the front gable with accents of tapestry brick bats to the eaves and the entrance arch, random stone rubble to the base of the front porch and steps, and a broad band of cream bricks below the diamond-pane windows. Below this band, on the left-hand side of the facade, is a garage which appears to be original (apart from the door). The front yard and driveway are surrounded by a clinker brick retaining wall, which appears to be original. The house is highly intact externally, including the tinted cream render which appears to retain its original finish.
Nearly all of the houses retain their original front fence: 1-1A & 2-6 Acheron Avenue; 458-466, 470-474 & 478-480 Camberwell Road. All fences are of masonry and match the cladding material of the associated house. The exception is the rubble-stone border at the front of 472 Camberwell Road. Some retain mild-steel gates or fence panels (the later seen at 6 Acheron Ave). As noted above, the fence at 460 Camberwell Road is particularly ornate.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study: Vol. 2 Camberwell
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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