Queen Street Precinct
1-27, 41-49 and 2-58 QUEEN STREET, RESERVOIR, DAREBIN CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Queen Street Precinct is an early twentieth century residential area and the contributory houses in the precinct comprise Federation and Edwardian houses, and inter-war houses including 1920/30s bungalows, 1930s Moderne villas and early 1940s houses. The consistency of scale, form, and detailing of the houses, and the open siting on garden allotments with consistent setbacks behind low front fences creating a 'garden suburb' character contributes to the significance of the precinct. The extent to which development in two key phases during the 1920s and 1930s is clearly evident is also an important characteristic.
Non-original alterations and additions to the contributory houses and the houses at 11, 12, 13, 46 & 48 are not significant.
How is it significant?
The Queen Street Precinct is of local historic, architectural and aesthetic significance to Darebin City.
Why is it significant?
Historically, the Queen Street Precinct is significant as evidence of the important and rapid phase of suburban development of Reservoir during the inter-war period, particularly in the decade after the electrification of the Whittlesea Railway Line in 1921. The house at No.32 is significant as a rare example of a pre-World War One house, which is associated with the locally important Crispe family. (AHC criteria A.4, D.2 & H.1)
The Queen Street Precinct is architecturally and aesthetically significant as a fine example of a residential area, which is notable for the consistent quality of its built form that is characteristic of medium scale suburban housing of the inter-war years. (AHC criteria D.2 & E.1)
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Queen Street Precinct - Physical Description 1
The Queen Street precinct is a residential area comprising predominantly inter-war housing ranging from 1920s Californian Bungalows to restrained Moderne villas from the late 1930s and early 1940s. The houses include both brick and weatherboard examples with typical inter-war detailing that demonstrates Arts & Crafts influences such as shingling or half-timbering to gable ends, timber eaves brackets, prominent rafter ends, and use of render or tapestry brick for detailing. They have hip or gable roofs clad in terracotta tiles or corrugated iron, which form porches or verandahs supported by rendered, timber or brick piers, often with a brick and render balustrade. Windows are double hung sash or side hung casements, usually grouped in pairs or triples, sometimes 'boxed', and occasionally arranged in shallow projecting bays. The relatively consistent garden set back behind low front fences (some of which are original - see below) contributes to the 'garden suburb' character of the precinct. The types of housing within the precinct may be broadly categorised as follows:
The most common type is the bungalow with transverse gable roof and projecting front gable. In this case, the roof usually extends to form a verandah at one side of the projecting bay, but in some cases (e.g. No.16) it is separate. Examples include 16, 20, 30, 34, 36, 40, 42, 44, 50, 52, 56 & 58 on the north side and 3, 13A, 19, 21, 25, 49. Of note are the identical bungalows at 40 and 42 which have unusual projecting porch/balconies, and the large brick bungalow at No.20, which is complemented by a low brick fence. Also of interest is No.58, which has a semi-circular arched verandah, with original stairs. The house at No.9 is a slight variation on this type, which has a hip roof with a projecting hipped bay.
Also well-represented are the gable-fronted villas. Examples include 18, 22, 24, 26, 28, 38 (complementary woven wire fence)& 54 on the north side and 3, 5, 17, 23, 27 & 41 on the south. Notable examples include the well-detailed group at 22-28, some of which share similar detailing, which suggests that they were constructed by the same builder. Another good example is No.3, which has a return verandah supported by round tuscan order columns on a brick balustrade. It has a complementary low brick bfence with 'hit and miss' detailing between the squat square brick piers and wrought iron gates.
A third group consists of the brick or rendered houses of the late 1930s and early 1940s. They have hip tile roofs, sometimes with projecting hip or gable. Examples include 7, 11, 13A, 14 & 15, all of which have complementary low brick (or in the case of No.7, stone clad) front fences. The fence to No.11 is particularly notable withunusual dog-tooth detailing. The house at No.7 has an elegant central projecting hip-roofed porch supported on paired Tuscan order columns, which is flanked by timber pergolas. No.14 is also well-detailed and features clinker brick detailing, vermiculated render panels, boxed double-hung sash windows with diamond-pattern leadlight to the upper panes, which are arranged as a bay to the projecting room, and a flat roofed porch supported by fluted Tuscan order columns set on a brick base. Other examples include 2 & 10 (Moderne detailing, with complementary brick fences), and 4, 6 & 8, which are relatively plain and (with the exception of No.6) also have low brick fences.
There are alsotwo Edwardian houses at 43 & 45 and one Federation house at No.32 (the former Crispe house and the first house in the street, as noted in the History), which is a double-fronted single-storey, block fronted weatherboard dwelling with a M-hip roof, a projecting side gableand a verandah, which returns on one side and has a cast-iron frieze. The windows are double-hung sash, paired at the front on either side of the central front door, which has side lights and highlights. There are two rendered brick chimneys.
The houses in the precinct generally have a relatively high degree of integrity when viewed from Queen Street. Some have been altered in detail, but could be restored. There have been a number of second storey additions (e.g. 10, 19, 25, 26 & 27), but these are generally set back behind the main roof form and do have have a significant visual impact upon the precinct as a whole. The precinct has a moderate level of intactness to the original phases of development from c.1920 to c.1940. The non-contributory houses include those built in the post-war period after c.1955 (11, 12, 46 & 48) and very altered inter-war houses such as No.13.
Heritage Study and Grading
Darebin - Darebin Heritage Study
Author: Context P/L
Year: 2011
Grading: Local
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