Puckle Street
001-141 & 2-146 PUCKLE STREET, 2-12 MARGARET STREET, 633-639A MOUNT ALEXANDER ROAD, 28A-32 SHUTER STREET, and 28 & 35 PRATT STREET, MOONEE PONDS, MOONEE VALLEY CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Puckle Street precinct in Moonee Ponds is a commercial area comprising buildings that predominantly date from c.1885 to c.1940. The following buildings and elements contribute to the significance of the precinct:
- The intactness to the key periods of development.
- The integrity of the contributory buildings above ground floor level.
- The consistency of scale and siting of buildings.
- The remnant nineteenth century residential buildings, now surrounded by later additions.
The following buildings contribute to the significance of the precinct:
- 1-47, 53-73, 85-95, 101-107, 121-125 & 129-141 (odds) and 2-12, 16-32, 38-46, 50-64, 70-104, 108-120, 128 & 132-146 (evens) Puckle Street
- 2-12 Margaret Street
- 633-639A Mt Alexander Road, and
- 30-32 Shuter Street.
Non original alterations and additions to contributory buildings and the buildings at 14, 48, 49-51, 66-68, 75, 97-99, 106, 109-119, 122-126, 127 & 130 Puckle Street, 28 Pratt Street and 28A Shuter Street are not significant.
How is it significant?
The Puckle Street precinct of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
Historically, Puckle Street is significant as the main commercial centre of Essendon since the 1880s. Retail centres such as these, which initially developed around railway stations and along tramlines, were an important regional focus from the late nineteenth century until the emergence of car-oriented shopping centres in the late 1950s. The importance of Puckle Street is illustrated by the diversity of commercial premises, which range from single shops to larger emporios and also by the number of banks. The remnant residential building illustrates the earlier incarnation as a residential area and its transition to a commercial centre by the early twentieth century. (Criteria A & D)
Aesthetically, it is significant as a fine collection of single and double-storey shops characterised by masonry construction embellished with rendered ornamentation. The form, finish and general ornament allows each period to express its differences from within the basic form and thus illustrates a series of milestones in commercial development of Puckle Street through the Victorian, Edwardian and Inter-War periods. (Criteria D & E)
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Puckle Street - Physical Description 1
Developed from c.1882, the commercial buildings in Puckle Street consist primarily of late Victorian and Edwardian shops, mostly double-storeyed, with dwellings above. There are over forty surviving examples in the precinct, some existing as stand-alone buildings or pairs, and others in rows of three (e.g., nos. 25-29), four (4-10, 58-64 and 132-38) or five (85-93), and in one notable case seven (1-7). At the upper level, these shops are rendered or exposed brick (many since overpainted), and have windows, typically in pairs with round-arches. These facades are invariably enlivened with rendered ornament in the form of moulded pilasters with segmental or triangular pediments, often surmounted by orbs or urns. A few display dates or names on their pediments, including nos. 26-30 ('Dudley buildings'), No.46 ('W & J Jones, grocers, est 1888'), and No.53 ('AD 1902').
These conspicuous double-storey shops make up about three-quarters of the surviving Victorian buildings in the precinct. The remainder comprise more modest single-storey shops. These are also of rendered brick, generally with plain parapets articulated only by a simple moulded cornice between corbels, sometimes with scrollwork, flutes or vermiculation. A few also have triangular or segmental-arched pediments (e.g., nos. 18, 46, 103, 128 & 133). A number of these shops (e.g., nos. 18, 32, 55 & 82-84) have had their facades concealed, although some Victorian ornament remains evident.
A unique Victorian survivor in Puckle Street is the double-storey polychrome brick villa, occupied by Dr Fishbourne in the 1880s and used by him as a private hospital. It still remains behind the Phillips Arcade at nos. 35-45, albeit in altered condition and greatly compromised context.
There are approximately fifteen Edwardian-era shops in the precinct, which follow the established Victorian types - mostly double-storey buildings with dwellings above shops, plus three or four single-storey ones. These Edwardian shops are invariably of face red brick construction, with typical Queen Anne Revival details such as roughcast banding (e.g., No.57), canted piers (Nos. 112-20*, 137), curved parapets (Nos. 57, 61, 141 ), orbs (Nos. 101, 137) and round-arched openings to first floor balconies (Nos. 57, 135). *This place is of individual significance - please refer to the Hermes citation for 112-20 Puckle Street for a more detailed description.
In contrast to the nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings in the precinct, the inter-war shops display considerable diversity in scale, form and style. There are several single-storey brick shops in the ubiquitous Moderne style, with rendered facades embellished with geometric ornament (e.g. nos. 42-44, 47), cabled fluting (No.80) and so on. Most prominent is the former G.J. Coles shop at No 72-78 - one of the few shops in Puckle Street to retain its original shopfront features. A number of other contemporaneous single-storey shops are simpler, with plain rendered or painted brick facades enlivened by simple decorative detail such as half-round parapets (e.g., No.63), moulded copings (Nos. 31-33) or clinker brick capping (No.129).
There are relatively few double-storey buildings dating from the 1920s and '30s. The most prominent and interesting examples include the former National Bank at No.2 (corner Mount Alexander Road), with its round-arched windows and ruled ashlar finish; the (altered) former Bank of NSW at No.71-73, with its Moderne fluted piers. Another distinctive inter-war element is the former Moonee Ponds Theatre at nos. 9-15, erected 1911 but with a remodelled facade of 1940.
The shops in Puckle Street either have no verandahs or simply cantilevered flat awnings of relatively recent origin. The exceptions are the original pressed-metal clad awnings at nos. 19-21 and 45. None of the shops retain original posted verandahs, although the row of four at nos. 1a to 1d has a reproduction verandah with a bullnosed roof supported on stop-chamfered timber posts with cast iron lace. Two shops retain remnant painted signage: the building at No.60 bears the name 'Fraser's', and another at No.72-78 bears the word 'drapers'.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - Moonee Ponds Activity Centre Heritage Assessments 2011
Author: David Helms Heritage Planning & Management
Year: 2011
Grading: LocalMoonee Valley - City of Moonee Valley Heritage Review 2004
Author: Heritage Alliance
Year: 2004
Grading:Moonee Valley - Essendon Conservation Study
Author: Graeme Butler
Year: 1985
Grading:
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