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Longford Estate and Environs Precinct
Auburn Road HAWTHORN and Tooronga Road and Currajong Road and Invermay Grove and Harts Parade HAWTHORN EAST, BOROONDARA CITY
Longford Estate and Environs Precinct
Auburn Road HAWTHORN and Tooronga Road and Currajong Road and Invermay Grove and Harts Parade HAWTHORN EAST, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
Longford Estate and Environs Precinct, comprising 313-343 Auburn Road, Hawthorn; 499-529 Tooronga Road, 2-44 and 1-45 Currajong Road, 1A-41 and 2-44 Invermay Grove, and 1-39 and 2-50 Harts Parade, Hawthorn East, is significant.
The following properties are non-contributory to the precinct: 317, 319, 323, 325 and 333 Auburn Road; 10, 12, 13, 15, 19, 32, 33, 35 and 45 Currajong Road; 1A-3, 2, 13, 14, 23, 28, 30, 29-31A, 40 and 42 Invermay Grove; 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 24 and 48 Harts Parade; and 503, 505, 507, 519 and 521 Tooronga Road.
The remaining properties are all contributory, as are original interwar front fences at 4-6 Invermay Grove and 20-22 Currajong Road.
How is it significant?
Longford Estate and Environs Precinct is of local historic and architectural (representative) significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
Longford Estate and Environs Precinct is of historic significance for illustrating the influence of the opening of the Hawthorn Station in the development of the area. The desirability of being close to a railway station and horse tramway in the pre-automotive era is demonstrated by allotment sizes and consistency of early Victorian Italianate dwellings in the precinct, indicating construction within a short period of time. The further subdivision and transition of architectural styles is further demonstrative of the desirability of the area which appeared to have remained constant until the 1920s and 1930s when the last of the vacant blocks were developed. (Criterion A)
Architecturally, the housing stock of the precinct is largely Victorian Italianate style, mostly small examples of the style displaying characteristic elements such as chimneys with a rendered cornice, bracketed eaves, low-pitched hipped roofs, front verandahs with slender posts or columns and cast-iron ornamentation. The windows are double hung sash windows, some with sidelights and timber four panelled moulded timber front doors. There is a smaller group of Federation/Edwardian Queen Anne houses, which display characteristic features such as high hipped roofs, the use of terracotta ridgecapping and tiles, projecting front gables with half-timbering and timber verandah fretwork. Interwar housing stock in the precinct offers refined, simple examples of styles popular in that era. They are generally single-storey and redbrick in construction, either small cottages or semi-detached dwellings which all display characteristic ornamentation and detailing. The precinct’s bluestone pitched laneways and guttering to Currajong Road are characteristic of nineteenth century suburban infrastructure. (Criterion D)
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Longford Estate and Environs Precinct - Physical Description 1
Description & IntegrityThe Longford Estate and Environs Precinct is located between Harts Parade at the north and Currajong Road at the south, with the larger Auburn and Tooronga roads forming the western and eastern boundaries.The precinct has a strong grid layout, with Harts Parade, Invermay Grove and Currajong Road running east to west between Auburn and Tooronga roads. The precinct also has laneways providing access to the rear of the properties, and a number of pedestrian lanes run north-south between the streets.
The streets in the precinct have been paved with asphalt with predominantly concrete kerbs and guttering. However, Currajong Road retains the early bluestone guttering along the length of the street. The laneways also generally retain the bluestone paving with a pitched channel in the centre of the laneway providing drainage.The housing stock in this precinct is mixed, reflecting its construction and redevelopment over several periods of time. The precinct is generally characterised by mainly single-storey dwellings from the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras. There are some houses from the mid twentieth century, of unremarkable quality, and more recent intrusive and over-scaled development, including large over-scaled additions and two-storey contemporary houses, but this is limited, and found mainly along the major Auburn and Tooronga roads, and the properties adjacent to those roads.Earlier development in the precinct is mainly Victorian Italianate, typified by low-pitched hipped roofs, chimneys with a rendered cornice, bracketed eaves, front or return verandah with slender columns or posts and cast-iron ornament, double-hung sash windows and four-panelled front doors.
The most common building type seen in this precinct is detached double-fronted Victorian timber cottages, with weatherboard or ashlar-look boards to the front facade. This housing is typical along Currajong Road, Harts Parade, and Invermay Grove.In some areas, the houses have been built on raised stumps to allow for the slight rise and fall of the natural landscape. The front or return verandahs are subsequently reached via a short flight of steps, often with a balustrade. Most dwellings retain their cast-iron frieze and brackets to the verandah as well as the Corinthian verandah columns and bracketed eaves.There are two types typical of the Italianate style, those with flat (block-fronted) symmetrical facades (e.g., 26 Hart Parade, Hawthorn East), and those with a hipped bay projecting to one side creating an asymmetrical facade. Some brick dwellings in this style are also present within the precinct. Many of these dwellings have been overpainted, however some retain their tuckpointed polychrome brickwork using the locally produced brown Hawthorn brick walls with cream and red brick banding (e.g. 16 Invermay Grove, Hawthorn East).
Typical alterations to the Victorian houses in the precinct include the overpainting of face brick and the loss of original verandah posts and cast iron. A small number of houses also have had changes to front windows, replacement of the front door and rendering of face brickwork. In addition, a small number of houses that have a visible two-storey rear extension that is clearly legible as later alterations.
Empty lots and large blocks which were visible on the 1904 MMWB plans were subdivided and gradually developed with a mixture of transitional Victorian and Edwardian style houses. The Edwardian houses in the precinct are semi-detached and built of face brick with tiled roof, in the Queen Anne style. Other changes from the Victorian era are the prominent use of red brick and the use of casement windows with highlights. Most of the Edwardian houses have adopted the more typical Federation gabled hipped roof. Shifts in roofing material trends are visible in this precinct with the transition from slate with terracotta ridge tiles and finials to fully tiled roofs.Timber Edwardian houses have ashlar-block cladding or weatherboards with an ornamental band of scalloped boards at the base. The verandahs also demonstrate the transition, moving from slender Corinthian columns to turned timber posts. Most have timber fretwork more typical of the Federation era however some still retain cast-iron decoration.The fencing to the Victorian and Edwardian housing in the precinct is generally characterised by reproduction low picket fences. Some higher fences have been built, mainly along or in proximity to the busy Auburn and Tooronga roads, or where intrusive new development has occurred. Traditional garden settings remain largely intact with relatively few garages or carports along the streets, with the properties benefiting from vehicular access from the lanes at the rear.
By the 1920s and 1930s the density of the suburb had increased and few empty lots remained. The houses constructed in this period are predominantly semi-detached houses (e.g. 16–22 Currajong Road). The houses are constructed of red and clinker brick, in contrast to the Hawthorn brick of the earlier Victorian houses, with terracotta gabled and hipped roofs.Ornamentation to the interwar houses is generally simple and refined, consisting of contrasting brick banding and brick decoration to gable ends. The garden settings to these houses generally remain intact, including the low brick fences, or have been designed to replicate the style of the interwar period. Alterations to the interwar housing stock include second-storey additions often of poor design and quality as well as rendering and painting of the original red brick surfaces. The original curved concrete porch hood at 11 Currajong Road was replaced with a tiled and hipped verandah roof in 1999.Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study Volume 6: Hawthorn East
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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NORTH MELBOURNE POTTERYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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STONY CREEK SLIPWAYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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SEASONING WORKS SITE AND TERRACOTTA LUMBERWALLVictorian Heritage Inventory
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