Windella Avenue and Environs Precinct
Windella Avenue and Kilby Road and Birdwood Street and Minto Street and Belford Road and Hale Street KEW EAST, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The Windella Avenue and Environs Precinct at 57-87 and 60-98 Windella Avenue, 82-90 Kilby Road, 1-19 and 2-24 Birdwood Street, 1-11 and 2-18 Minto Street, 76-104 and 103-109 Belford Road, and 1-15 and 2-18 Hale Street, Kew East, is significant. The precinct is located on Crown Portion 89 of the Boroondara Parish. The streets were laid out between c.1910 and 1926, and the majority of the housing stock constructed between c.1920 and c.1942.
Individually significant, Contributory and Non-contributory places are listed in the Precinct Gradings Schedule below.
Original and early front fences at 86, 98, 73 and 81 Windella Avenue, 88, 94 and 105 Belford Road, 82 Kilby Road, 3, 6, 8, 12 and 20 Birdwood Street are significant.
Non-original alterations and additions are not significant.
How is it significant?
The Windella Avenue and Environs Precinct is of local historical and architectural significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
Historically, the Windella Avenue and Environs Precinct is significant for the evidence it provides of the pattern of settlement in this northern part of the municipality during the interwar period, on land that was subdivided from farmland. The precinct strongly illustrates the interwar suburban growth and development in Kew East that was spurred on by the 1925 extension of the electric tramway to Burke Road, Kew East, then full electrification of the tram between the city and Kew in 1927. (Criterion A)
Architecturally, the Windella Avenue and Environs precinct is significant as a representative example of intact areas of medium and smaller homes in the north of Boroondara from the interwar period. Mostly the houses were developed over a relatively short two-decade period, which contributes to the visual unity of the precinct. The visual unity of the precinct is enhanced by the high level of cohesiveness provided by clusters and pairs of houses (on Minto and Hale streets and Windella Avenue) built to similar designs. It also comprises several houses that appear to be State Savings Bank-designed houses. As well as typical bungalows in timber and brick, the precinct demonstrates additional popular interwar styles, including the Old English revival and Moderne styles. The bungalows, built to similar designs, sit alongside other examples built to more individual designs, including more elaborate houses at 88 Kilby Road and 88 Belford Road, both corner houses and both built between 1930 and 1935. (Criterion D)
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Windella Avenue and Environs Precinct - Physical Description 1
The interwar precinct at Windella Avenue (part), Belford Road (part), Birdwood Street, Hale Street, Minto Street, and Kilby Road (part) comprises mostly single-storey houses, many of which are Bungalows, set in modestly sized gardens on mostly conventional-sized lots relative to other subdivisions in this part of Kew; except for the lots at 71-87 and 82-98 Windella Avenue with reduced depth, and larger lots on Belford Road.
The houses are built in a range of domestic architectural styles typical of the interwar and early postwar periods, including Bungalows, the interwar Old English revival style, interwar Moderne, and postwar vernacular interpretations of these styles. Building records show that houses in the precinct were built over a relatively short period between c.1920 and c.1942; the exceptions are the postwar houses at 82 and 84 Kilby Road.
The earliest houses in the precinct were built between 1920 and 1926 and, predominantly, these houses are simple timber bungalows with terracotta tiled roofs.
A large proportion of the Bungalows are of weatherboard construction; 76, 78 Belford, most Bungalows on Hale Street, all Bungalows on Minto Street, 4, 8, 15 Birdwood, 60, 62, 68, 82, 88 Windella. Elsewhere they are of brick construction (92 Belford, 11 Hale, 7, 9, 12, 14 Birdwood, 57 Windella); rendered masonry (94, 102 Belford, 92 Windella); or combinations of contrasting brick and render construction (96, 102, 105 Belford, 65, 67, 71, 90 Windella). The Bungalows largely comprise two main types, distinguished by roof configuration; either a gable roof with two prominent street-facing gables, or a transverse gable roof with one or two projecting street-facing gables. The later grouping, built 1926-30, are generally designed with hip roofs and a projecting bay, mostly without a small street-facing gable (7 and 8 Birdwood for example). True to type, the Bungalows in the precinct exhibit the broadly characteristic features of the style, including tall brick chimneys, projecting timber window frames and timber-framed sash windows, some have bay windows (notable curved corner bays at 71, 82, 88 Windella), masonry verandahs with slab capping supporting variations of tapered piers or single and grouped columns. Many houses retain original terracotta tile roofs. Some original roof tiles have been replaced (100 Belford, 3 Hale with new terracotta tiles, 12 Hale, 3 Minto).
Design and detailing of some houses, in particular houses on Minto and Hale streets, is reminiscent of the State Savings Bank designs that were built in other parts of the municipality, including in Camberwell and Kew, at the same time. Several matches to State Savings Bank designs have been located and the houses share a number of characteristics, including: transverse gabled and hipped roof forms clad in terra cotta tiles, verandahs and entry porches with separate roofs or enclosed within the main roof form, timber sash windows (often with small panes to the upper sash, often in pairs), sturdy timber verandah posts (sometimes on masonry pillars), exposed rafters and timber shingle detailing to street-facing gables. Ornamentation is minimal with visual interest achieved through manipulation of form and the simple and practical use of standard materials such as brick and timber.
Shared detailing of other houses on Hale and Minto streets suggests they may have been built by the same builder or by a small pool of builders; the tapered buttressed piers and verandah columns at 1, 2 and 10 Hale and 18 Minto; and the mirrored designs of 4 and 6 Hale, for example.
Situated on elevated ground at the corner of Windella Avenue and Kilby Road, the brick and rough-rendered interwar Bungalow with prominent half-hipped terracotta tile roof at 88 Kilby Road (built 1930-35) stands out in the precinct for its high architectural quality, distinctive half-hipped roof form, and original unpainted grey rendered external walls.
The precinct also includes late-interwar vernacular brick Bungalows at 6 Birdwood, 86 Kilby Road (1935-38), distinguished from the earlier Bungalows by simpler detailing and more upright form.
Other houses built in the precinct in the late interwar period are built in the Old English revival architectural style, for example at 109 Belford (no date), 3 Birdwood (1939), 13 Birdwood (no date), 19 Birdwood (no date, transition between Old English and Moderne, overpainted), 72, 73, 77 and 79 Windella (1935-38), 85 and 87 Windella (1938-42), and 90 Kilby Road (1935-38, roller shutters, 40s-60s addition). Characteristic features of the interwar Old English style are seen in various combinations and intensities at these addresses, including clinker brick, corbeled eaves, leadlight windows, some imitation half-timbering.
The house, front fence and retaining walls at 82 Kilby Road represent a postwar version of the Old English revival style blended with Art Deco features. The fine brickwork and detailing of the walls of the house and the 'waterfall' profile of the brick fence and retaining walls in the front garden are distinctive features of the property.
The late-interwar to early-postwar Moderne architectural style is also represented in the precinct: 20 Birdwood (c.1938-42, steel framed windows), 11 Birdwood (1949), 81 and 83 Windella (1938-42) and 98 Windella (1935-38, vernacular version), and 84 Kilby Road. Characteristic features of the Moderne style include the use of curved corners, horizontal expression through banded brickwork, cantilever awnings, or window bars, the flat-topped parapet frontage to 81 and 83 Windella Avenue concealing the roof form, and broad chimneys, rectangular in plan.
107 Belford Road (no build date but likely postwar) is the only example of the American Colonial revival style in the precinct. Consistent with typical characteristics of the popular post-WWII style the cream-brick house has a medium pitched tile roof and small-paned windows approximating Georgian proportions.
The St Paul's Anglican Church complex is also located within the precinct. It was established from 1924 at the corner of Windella Avenue and Hale Street, at the same time as the first houses in the precinct were being built, and would have served the residential community that was growing in its immediate vicinity. The Vicarage, at 17 Hale Street, was built in 1926 by architects Carleton & Carleton, in a style that complements the other houses in the precinct. The Church site also includes the weatherboard Coles Hall designed by architect Kenneth H Oliphant (1924-25), and the modern Church building designed by Arthur Bunbury & Associates Architects (1960). St Paul's Church is subject to a separate assessment, and will therefore not be considered further here.
A number of properties retain original or early front fences and gates, designed in keeping with or in styles to match the house. These are found at 86, 98, 73 and 81 Windella Avenue, 88, 94 and 105 Belford Road, 82 Kilby Road, and 3, 6, 8, 12 and 20 Birdwood Street.
Some of the houses have intrusive second-storey additions, others have carports built in the front gardens, which reduce the integrity of some properties. In spite of these additional elements, most of these houses can still be clearly 'read' as Bungalows or as representative examples of their original architectural style, and the carports/garages are removable, and the precinct remains a highly intact and notable collection of interwar housing styles, represented by a range of medium and smaller homes. The Old English house at 70 Windella Street has been downgraded to Non-contributory as it underwent extensive alterations in 2002, involving the construction of a new half of the front facade and rebuilding of the central porch.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study Volume 5: Kew East and Mont Albert
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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