Edward St and Richardson St
34-40 DAISY STREET and 1-23 & 2-60 EDWARD STREET and 1-57, 8-22 & 50-60 RICHARDSON STREET and 14-22 & 9-25 Miller Street and 2-6 & 5-7 THISTLE STREET and 8 THORN STREET and 1-7 MCHALE COURT and 6-8 Shamrock Street ESSENDON, MOONEE VALLEY C
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
The Edward Street and Richardson Street precinct in Essendon is a residential precinct comprising housing from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. The houses include a small number of surviving Victorian villas, Queen Anne villas, Edwardian timber cottages and bungalows, and inter-war bungalows and houses. The following elements contribute to the significance of the precinct:
1. The houses and any associated early/original front fences at:
- 34-40 Daisy Street
- 1, 1A, 3-7, 11-23 and 2, 12-16 & 20-28, 34-48 & 58-60 Edward Street
-9-11, 11A, 17-25 & 16-22 Miller Street
- 3-7, 11-19, 23-27, 41-57 and 8-12, 18-22, 52-54 & 60 Richardson Street
- 2-6 Thistle Street
- 8 Thorn Street
- 8 Shamrock Street
Key attributes that contribute to the significance of this precinct include:
- the consistency of scale (one or two storey), form, siting (uniform or similar front and side setbacks), and original materials and detailing (weatherboard, face brick or render with iron or tiled hip or gable roof, verandah with cast iron or timber detailing) of the contributory houses and fences
- the high degree of intactness to the late nineteenth century and early-mid twentieth century development dates with contributory buildings that typically survive with their presentation to the street being largely intact
- original front fences and low height of fences meaning that dwellings are visible from the street
- regular road alignments and allotment patterns resulting from the nineteenth century subdivision
- the relative absence of vehicle accommodation including driveways and crossovers
- the mature street trees in Richardson Street (Camphor Laurel, Cinnamomum camphora) and Miller and Shamrock streets (Oaks, Quercus sp. & Elms Ulmus sp.)
- the bluestone kerb and channel in various streets throughout the precinct, and the grassed street verges with mature street trees (as noted above) in Richardson Street.
Other houses in the precinct, post-WWII fences, and non-original alterations or additions to contributory places are not significant.
How is it significant?
The Edwards Street and Richardson Street precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
It is historically significant as a representative example of a residential area, which demonstrates several successive phases of development in Essendon from the land boom of the 1880s to the inter-war era. The precinct provides a tangible illustration of how the development of more remote nineteenth century subdivisions was inhibited until the improvement of public transport networks in the twentieth century. (Criteria A & D)
Richardson Street is architecturally and aesthetically significant as a fine example of a middle class residential area, which is notable for consistency of built form and the relatively high degree of integrity to the main periods of development. The aesthetic qualities of the streetscape are enhanced by the mature street trees and road layout. (Criteria D & E)
-
-
Edward St and Richardson St - Physical Description 1
The built fabric within this precinct consists mostly of detached houses erected during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Of the small number of houses built in the late nineteenth century, only a few now remain. Three detached weatherboard villas (all retaining bullnosed verandahs with stop-chamfered timber posts) survive in Edward Street, at Nos. 20, 26 and 28 (formerly Nos. 60, 66 and 68). There is a single-storey bi-chromatic brick villa with a hipped slate roof at 7 Richardson Street, and a particularly ornate example at No.20 in bi-chromatic brick with an elaborate cast iron verandah and cast iron palisade fence. Another, somewhat altered, Victorian era house is at No.22 Richardson.
Saltaire, at 8 Thorn Street, is a unique instance in the precinct of a double storey bi-chromatic brick terrace, retaining many original elements including cast-iron columns, lacework frieze and an ornate rendered parapet bearing the name of the house.
The bulk of the significant houses in the precinct date from the Edwardian period (1901-1911). These are mostly in the form of block-fronted timber or brick cottages with asymmetrical double-fronted facades, and hipped rooves of slate (e.g., 17 & 19 Richardson, 1A Edward) or corrugated galvanized steel (e.g., 12, 13, & 55 Richardson, 7 & 19 Edward), with rough-cast and/or half-timbered gable ends. The street frontages have bullnosed verandahs with turned timber posts (or, less commonly, cast iron columns) and friezes of either cast iron lacework or timber slats. The houses at 8 and 10 Richardson Street are particularly well-detailed examples each having an unusual gablet roof with terracotta ridge capping and roughcast render to the upper part of the walls. Only a few of them (e.g., 7 and 8 Edward) have return verandahs. The houses have timber-framed double-hung sash windows, some (e.g., 17 & 19 Edward) with ripple-iron awnings on timber brackets; a few have rectangular bay windows (e.g., 7 Edward).
The numerous block-fronted Edwardian villas are supplemented by a few contemporaneous villas of conventional weatherboard construction, similarly detailed (e.g., 15 Richardson; 5 & 60 Edward) and some tuck-pointed red brick houses in the Queen Anne Revival idiom, typically with turned timber verandah posts supported bullnosed rooves.
The relatively small numbers of inter-war houses in the precinct are mostly in the form of detached brick houses in the bungalow style of the 1920s. These have face red brick walls (often with rendered or roughcast trim) and hipped terracotta tiled rooves (typically with roughcast, half-timbered or shingled gable ends). Several houses have bay windows, either curved (e.g., 58 Edward, 60 Richardson) or canted (47 Richardson), and most also have broad front porches, variously with arched openings (51 Richardson), tapered pillars (41 Richardson) or brick piers. Exceptions amongst them are the two prominent and adjacent attic-storeyed bungalows at 38 and 42 Edward Street, both retaining ornate original brick front fences.
Among all these brick bungalows are a couple of timber examples, in Edward Street, including No.16 (with terracotta-tiled jerkinhead roof and shingled gabled end) and No.24. Other inter-war housing styles are far less represented in the precinct; there are, for example, isolated and unique examples of rendered brick houses in the Moderne (25 Richardson) and Spanish Mission (49 Richardson) idioms.
Other elements that contribute to the historic character of the precinct are mature street tree plantings comprising Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphora) in Richardson Street, Oaks (Quercus sp.) and Elms (Ulmus sp.) in Miller and Shamrock streets, and bluestone kerb and channeling (It is understood that the kerb and channel in Richardson was re-laid during the 1960s). The mature trees in very wide grassed nature strips contributes to the distinctive character of Richardson Street.
The precinct has a moderate degree of integrity. Interspersed amongst the earlier development are post-war houses and flats.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - Review of HO precincts
Author: David Helms HPM
Year: 2010
Grading: LocalMoonee Valley - City of Moonee Valley Heritage Review Stage 4
Author: Heritage Alliance
Year: 2004
Grading:
-
-
-
-
-
ESSENDON RAILWAY STATION COMPLEXVictorian Heritage Register H1562
-
CANARY ISLAND DATE PALM AVENUE (PHOENIX CANARIENSIS)Victorian Heritage Register H1200
-
FORMER ESSENDON HIGH SCHOOLVictorian Heritage Register H1294
-
"1890"Yarra City
-
"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
-
"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
-
13 Flinders Street, QueenscliffQueenscliffe Borough
-
162 Nicholson StreetYarra City
-
164 Nicholson StreetYarra City
-
-