Sackville Street Precinct, Kew
KEW, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
Precinct character and significance
The Sackville Street Precinct was identified by the 'Kew Urban Conservation Study' (P Sanderson, 1988); in the report it was called Urban Conservation Area No. 1 (E).
No precinct citations as such were prepared as part of the 1988 study, but there is a brief description of the proposed precinct focusing on the character of the individually significant buildings:
Sackville and Wrixon Streets contain 8 houses that have been designated Grade A in the study. Most are mansions of considerable size built in the late Victorian period, that are set on their original, Generous allotments of land. Between these there is a high concentration of Grade B and C buildings. They combine, particularly at the western end of the street, to form an impressive collection of large houses, many of architectural distinction. Of the Grade B and C houses in the area, most were built after the Victorian period, but they have maintained the architectural distinction of the street. The Urban Conservation Area is recommended with the intent to maintain this group of large houses on their original land holdings. (Sanderson 1988: Vol. 1, 3/21)
A statement of significance was prepared for Sackville Street Precinct (HO162) as part of the 'Review of Heritage Overlay Precinct Citations' (Lovell Chen, 2006). It reads as follows:
The Sackville Street Precinct, Kew, is an area of heritage significance for the following reasons:
. The place contains a number of individually significant mansions generally dating from the late Victorian period, set on generous allotments. These are supported, visually, by a series of smaller houses which range in date from the Victorian era to the Federation and interwar periods. There are several pleasant houses from the post-WWII period.
. As is the case for Harcourt Street Hawthorn (HO151), the area is important for its ability to demonstrate a pattern of early mansion development supplemented by smaller houses added from the Federation through to more recent periods.
. The area is notable for its imposing envelope of street trees which arch over the street for most of its length, and for its large and mature gardens.
The extent proposed in the 1988 study was much as the precinct is today: a linear extent along the entire length of Sackville Street, excluding frontages to adjacent streets with the exception of two properties forming an eastern 'gateway' to the precinct off Burke Road (1195 Burke Road and 130 Sackville Street).
An additional property at 4 Grange Road, not shown on the 1988 map, has been included in the HO162 precinct. This is an early interwar bungalow. The area in the precinct around Grange Road was developed primarily in the early interwar period, including houses at 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 & 110 Sackville Street, as well as 1, 2 and 4 Grange Road (all Contributory to the precinct, except for the Significant 105 Sackville Street).
Another notable change between the 1988 precinct extent recommendations and the current boundaries of precinct HO162 is that the properties that are now 6-16 Rowland Street were recommended for inclusion in the precinct, but are now outside of it. This was due to inclusion in 1988 of the entire extent of the grounds of the 1888 mansion 'Heathfield' at 39 Sackville Street (Significant in HO162), which at that time retains its extensive gardens. Since that time, the gardens have been subdivided, creating new properties at 31 & 35 Sackville Street and 6-16 Rowland Street. While the new Sackville Street addresses have been retained within the precinct (as Non-contributory properties with contemporary houses), 6-16 Rowland Street was excluded from the precinct extent.
Extension character
Area 1: 16 Rowland Street
As noted above, the property that is now 16 Rowland Street was once part of the grounds of the mansion 'Heathfield' (39 Sackville Street).
As noted, the mansion is a Significant property in the HO162 precinct and retains a small part of it original grounds at 39 Sackville Street.
Directly behind 39 Sackville Street, the stables of 'Heathfield' survive at 16 Rowland Street. They have been converted into a residential dwelling, and extended to the south (rear) and east.
While the mansion is Italianate in style, the stables are Gothic Revival, with a cross-gabled roof and decorative bargeboards and finials.
The walls of the former stables are finished in ruled render, and windows are both standard rectangular double-hung sashes, as well as decorative arched windows in the western gable. It appears that all joinery elements, including ledged and bracketed stable doors on the west elevation have either been replaced in kind or recently refinished.
Alterations to the former stables include the loss of a verandah on the west side (where the stable doors are), and the construction of two extensions. There also appears to be a tiny, flat-roofed extension along the east elevation filled with timber garage doors. Set further back from the street is a hipped-roof extension, connected to the former stables by a narrow link. This building has rendered walls and quoins at the corners, and a chimney that suggests a 1930s built date. The garage doors along the west elevation of the stables and this small dwelling may have been interwar alterations to allow the housing of cars and the chauffeur. This would coincide with the extensions to the rear of 'Heathfield' made in 1932 by its then-owners the Franciscan Order.
To the rear is a much larger and more recent extension, with a double-storey section at the back of the site and a single-storey link with the stables building. While the use has changed, and it has been extended, the former stables have a built form that is still recognisable as such.
While horses provided essential transport in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, only the well-off could afford to have their own horses and carriage. As expensive and high-status possessions, both horses and carriages were generally housed in well-constructed, substantial buildings, second in architectural importance only to the main house itself. Most stables were two-storey structures with a hay loft on the top floor, like the 'Heathfield' stables. Though often converted to motorcar garages in the early twentieth century, thus extending their usefulness, stables are an increasingly rare building type.
In the Boroondara Heritage Overlay, 19 stables associated with residential dwellings have been identified. Of them, seven are at properties (mansions and gentlemen's retreats) of State significance. Nearly half of them (nine) are located in Hawthorn, Boroondara's oldest suburb. Three of them are located in Kew:
. 6 Studley Park Road, Kew (HO223) - Whitty House, an Italianate mansion of 1908-09 retains its stables.
. 96 Studley Park Road, Kew (VHR H515) - 'Raheen', a mansion of 1868-88, retains a large stable block.
. 1 Tennyson Street, Kew (HO349) - timber building of c1917 behind a significant house and shop of c1916.
As an integral part of the 'Heathfield' and a rare surviving stables building, 16 Rowland Street should be included in the Heritage Overlay. Considering the changes over time to the building, a Contributory grade is considered appropriate.
Area 2: 3 & 6-14 Grange Road
Grange Road was created when land to the south-west of the Kew Reservoir was subdivided in the early twentieth century. It is shown on a 1913 MMBW plan (Detail Plan No. 1566), but the southern half shown (1-19 & 2-14 Grange Road) was still vacant at the time, as was the surrounding section of Sackville Street, between Burke Road and Edward Street.
One of the first houses to be constructed on the street was 12 Grange Road, an attic-storey Arts & Crafts Bungalow of c1920 (HO308) with an unusual roof of blue-glazed terracotta tiles. Other houses on the street were built from the early interwar period (late 1910s) through to the outbreak of World War II. They form a continuous streetscape on the east side with the two 1920s bungalows already in the HO162 precinct (2 & 4 Grange Road), and around the south-west corner (adjacent to 1 Grange Road, which is already in the precinct).
Like the adjoining part of the HO162 precinct, most of the houses in the extension are early interwar attic-storey bungalows, or later interwar California Bungalows. A Moderne two-storey flats building of c1940 at 10 Grange Avenue is an exception.
Of particular note is a substantial brick attic-bungalow at 14 Grange Avenue. It has a transverse gable roof which extends over a front porch supported on brick piers. The central dormer window has an arched window beneath a tiled hood. There is a smaller dwelling or sleepout next to the main house, which may have been built at the same time, judging from the chimney. This chimney is identical in pattern to those seen on nearby attic-storey bungalows at 130 Sackville Street (Contributory to HO162) and 1185-1189 Burke Road (in the proposed HO162 extension), so appears to be the work of the same designer/builder.
Of the later houses in the proposed extension, 8 Grange Road is a classic California Bungalow. The large site allows a sprawling L-shaped plan with a major and a minor gable to the front and the front porch tucked into the entrant corner. The walls are of red brick, with a gable treatment of both timber shingles and roughcast render.
The houses in the proposed extension have a high level of intactness, apart from new French doors to No. 3. The Mintern Abbas Flats at No. 10 retain their original garages at the rear, divided track driveway, and low brick front fence. No. 8 also retains an original clinker brick front fence (though it was damaged when viewed in 2017).
Area 3: 1185-1189 Burke Road
As noted in the HO162 precinct background, only the two corner properties at the intersection with Burke Road were included in the original (and current) extent of HO162 Sackville Street Precinct. The property on the southern corner, 130 Sackville Street, is a Contributory attic-storey bungalow, which faces Burke Road.
Like other Contributory and Significant houses in the east end of the HO162 precinct, which was undeveloped by 1913, 130 Sackville Street is an early interwar attic-storey bungalow with a strong Arts & Crafts stylistic influence.
The same is true of the three houses to its south, at 1185-1189 Burke Road. Judging from the street directories, the entire row (including 130 Sackville Street) was built between 1917 and 1920. Judging by their details, the four houses were designed by a single person. Three of them (130 Sackville Street, 1185 & 1187 Burke Road) have the same unusual chimney design: a slender brick shaft with a smooth rendered top punctuated by two projecting headers on each face. The house at 1189 Burke Road has a different chimney top, with indented rectangles in the render, but other details, such as windows, suggest it was designed by the same person as 130 Sackville Street.
The three houses in the extension all have brick walls, with the major and minor gables filled with simplified half-timbering (fibro-cement with timber straps) or timber shingles in the gables. Windows are in box frames with simple leadlights, and more elaborate Art Nouveau lights to the front door and surrounds. All have at least one bay window with a simple hood ornamented by expressed rafter tails. Porches are supported on dwarf brick piers with a timber post on top, or on heavy brick piers. Nos. 1185 and 1187 are both gable-fronted with a minor gable and attic sleepout within the roof form. No. 1189 has a transverse gable roof, and a large half-timbered dormer dominating the facade. It is similar in form to the dormer on the Sackville Street elevation of 130 Sackville Street.
The three houses at 1185-1189 Burke Road are highly intact as viewed from the street, with various rear extensions visible in aerials.
Conclusion
The proposed extension of HO162 Sackville Street Precinct at 16 Rowland Street will allow the protection on an original outbuilding associated with the Significant mansion formerly known as 'Heathfield', already in the precinct. As noted above, stables are an increasingly rare building type, in Boroondara and elsewhere. Stables of prestigious residences, such as 'Heathfield', were not just utilitarian outbuildings, but were architecturally designed in their own right, especially when they were on public view. The 'Heathfield' Stables are a good example of this as the fronted Rowland Street, and were designed in a picturesque Gothic Revival style.
The proposed extension to the precinct at 3 & 6-14 Rowland Street contains properties that continue the area of interwar development seen in the east end of the precinct. They make a logical continuation northward, as 1, 2 & 4 Grange Road are already in the precinct. The houses in the extension are of a comparable size, intactness and design quality as those already in the precinct, with 14 Grange Road particularly distinguished. As noted in the current precinct statement of significance, in Clause 22.05, interwar houses are part of the valued character of the precinct.
The proposed extension at 1185-1189 Burke Road also contains substantial and intact dwellings of the early interwar period that would be Contributory to HO162 Sackville Street Precinct. They both continue a streetscape that is already in the precinct, extending south from 1195 Burke Road, and also figuratively reunite a row of unified houses designed and built as a group. Their contributory nature to the precinct is clearly demonstrated by their similarity to 130 Sackville Street (Contributory), which stands at the start of the row.
For a full list of individual gradings within the precinct, please refer to the PDF citation.
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AUBURN PRIMARY SCHOOL NO.2948Victorian Heritage Register H1707
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PARLINGTONVictorian Heritage Register H0731
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ROTHAVictorian Heritage Register H0510
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