Monash Street
1-13 & 2-8 ANDERSON ST, 1-11 CHAUVEL ST, 1A, 1B, 1-19 & 2-20 DUMBLANE AVE, 1-35 & 2-36 ELLIOT ST, 2-24 KINGSTON AVE, 14-106 LANGS RD, 1-65 & 2-72 MONASH ST, and 1-15 VICTORY PDE, ASCOT VALE, MOONEE VALLEY CITY
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Statement of Significance
The Monash Street precinct in Ascot Vale is an inter-war residential area, which predominantly comprises detached single-storey bungalows with a variety of distinctive window and porch treatments that are representative of their type and era. The following elements contribute to the significance of the precinct:
1. The houses and any associated early/original front fences and garages or outbuildings at:
- 1 & 5-13 and 4-8 Anderson Street
- 1, 7 & 9 Chauvel Street
- 1A, 1B, 1-5, 9, 13-17, 2 & 6-20 Dumblane Avenue
- 1, 5-19, 29-35, 2-20 & 24-36 Elliot Street
- 4-12 & 16 Kingston Avenue
- 14, 16, 20-26, 32, 36, 42, 44, 50-56, 62-92 & 96-104 Langs Road
- 1-17, 21-65 & 2-72 Monash Street
- 1-15 Victory Parade
2.The former shops at 18, 58 & 60 Langs Road and the inter-war electrical substation.
Key attributes that contribute to the significance of this precinct include:
- the consistency of scale (one storey), form (asymmetrical plan often with projecting porch), 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) of the contributory houses
- the high degree of intactness to the mid-twentieth century development date with contributory buildings that typically survive with their presentation to the street being largely intact
- the 'garden suburb' character created by the generous garden setbacks, with original front fences and low height of fences and lack of building within the front setback area meaning that dwellings are visible from the street
- the location of vehicle accommodation within the rear yards of properties.
- consistent road alignments and allotment patterns resulting from the twentieth century subdivision
- the remnant bluestone kerb and channel in some streets
Other houses in the precinct, post-World War II front fences and outbuildings, and non-original alterations or additions to contributory places are not significant.
How is it significant?
The Monash Street precinct is of local historic, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
It is historically significant as an illustration of the rapid and extensive residential development that occurred in Ascot Vale in the decades after World War I. The significance of the place is enhanced by the consistency of built form, which provides tangible evidence of the extent to which the estate was developed in one main period. (Criteria A & D)
It is of architectural and aesthetic significance as a fine example of a typical inter-war residential area with garden suburb character. The aesthetic qualities of the estate are enhanced by the consistency of built form and high degree of intactness to its key phase of development, which creates an historic character that is strongly evocative of the inter-war period. (Criteria D & E)
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Monash Street - Physical Description 1
The housing in this precinct consists overwhelmingly of detached single storey inter-war houses, mostly in 1920s bungalow style. Most of these bungalows are weatherboard, with only a few brick examples in the western half of the precinct (e.g., 1 & 7 Chauvel, 3 Anderson, 1 & 12 Dumblane and 8 Kingston). These houses typically have hipped or gabled rooves (clad in terracotta tiles or, less commonly, corrugated galvanized steel), although a few have distinctive jerkinhead rooves (e.g., 18 Elliot, 1 Anderson, 25 Dumblane, 12 Kingston and 38 Monash). Maytham, at 33 Elliot Street, is a unique instance in the precinct of a steep-roofed attic-storeyed bungalow.
These inter-war bungalows vary in form - symmetrical and asymmetrical frontages, with central, off-centre or side porches - but otherwise display cohesion in detailing. Gable ends, for example, are most commonly clad with timber shingles; a lesser number are half-timbered (e.g., 1, 2 & 5 Elliot; 5, 11 & 18 Dumblane), and fewer still are a combination (7 & 14 Elliot, 16 & 18 Monash). Among the anomalies are those with gable ends infilled with pressed metal (e.g., 35 Elliot, 43 Monash), roughcast (1 Monash) or timber boards (20 Elliot, 4 Kingston, 22 Monash).
The bungalows have timber-framed double-hung sash windows, often enlivened by timber glazing bars or leaded glass. Many also have bay windows, mostly of canted form but sometimes curved (e.g., 13 & 17 Elliot, 13 Dumblane, 14, 28 & 66 Monash, 50 & 54 Langs) or, rarely, rectangular (43 & 50 Monash). Some bay windows have shingled spandrels (e.g. 13, 17 Elliot; 5, 13 Dumblane; 14, 50, 66 & 68 Monash).
Porch detailing exhibits considerable variety. Some bungalows have full-height columns (e.g., 1 Victory, 7 Monash and 29 Elliot), some of which are fluted (3 Dumblane) or have Ionic capitals (59 Monash). One recurring detail is paired Classical colonettes on brick piers - most evident in Elliot (e.g., nos. 6, 11, 13, 16, 20, 34, etc). In Monash, porches more often have paired timber posts on brick piers (e.g., nos. 1, 17, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, etc). Other porch details include tapered brick piers (e.g., 7 Monash, 9 Anderson, 12 Dumblane and 14 Langs), fluted pillars (11 Victory, 12 Kingston, 56 Monash) or tall brick piers (5 & 6 Anderson, 12 Dumblane; 5, 12, 15 & 22 Monash). Some bungalows have enclosed brick porches, variously clinker brick, with tapestry brick trim (e.g., 10 & 34 Dumblane) or rendered (66 Monash). A few porches also have solomonic columns (e.g., 18 & 28 Elliot, 1 Anderson and 1 Chauvel).
The 1920s bungalows are supplemented by a relatively small number of later inter-war houses. Some of these are of weatherboard construction, including a few in the Moderne (9 Victory Parade, 8 & 20 Dumblane) and Tudor Revival styles (36 & 70 Monash). There is a concentration of these weatherboard houses at the western end of Langs Road, where stylistic pretensions are more or less restricted to porch details: Spanish Mission (No.64), Tudor Revival (No.92) and Moderne (No.96).
More typically, the Iater inter-war houses are of brick construction, albeit representing the same palette of styles. There is a Spanish Mission house at 13 Monash Street with rendered walls and an arched loggia of soIomonic columns. The Moderne and Tudor Revival idioms are slightly more extensively represented with about ten examples each. The Moderne houses typically have curved rendered porches with flat slab rooves, and include Art Deco motifs such as stepped parapets or chimneys. They are variously rendered (10 Kingston, 11 Monash), clinker brick (57 Monash) or orange brick (62 Monash). The Tudor Revival brick homes are located in Monash Street (e.g., nos. 23, 51, 46, 53, 63, 72 etc). These have relatively steep terracotta-tiled rooves, gabled parapets with eaves corbels, and porches with round or ogee arches, often edged with clinker brick. By far the most distinguished example is the large home at 72 Monash Street, with panels of herringbone brickwork and matching front fence with gabled piers.
Contemporaneous non-residential buildings within the streetscape include some brick shops at 58-60 Langs Road, with stepped parapet and rendered panels; one shop (No.58) retains its original shop front with recessed splayed doorway, metal framed windows and glazed highlights. At the north end of Alexander Street is an electrical substation, in the form of a small rendered brick building with gabled roof, capped parapet, terracotta vents and ledged timber door.
All streets within the precinct have bluestone kerbing and gutters, with concrete crossovers and footpaths. Street planting is minimal; there are flowering fruit trees in Elliot, MeIaIeuca sp. in Chauvel and Langs, fourteen Dwarf Yellow Gums (Eucalyptus leucexylon nana) in Dumblane, and three European Beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) in Kingston. The last two species have been identified in the City of Moonee VaIley Significant Tree Database.
Most houses have appropriate front fences - many of them original. These include woven wire fences (e.g., 5, 6, 8, 12 & 19 Elliot; 11 Dumblane; 64 Monash), cyclone wire fence (1 Elliot; 5 Anderson; 20 Dumblane; 39 & 48 Monash), brick dwarf walk (1 Anderson, 7 Chauvel; 10 Kingston; 62 Monash) and random stone walls (17 Dumblane; 40 & 70 Monash). Many others have (reproduction) timber picket fences (13 & 15 Victory; 13, 26, 34, 36 Elliot, 13 Dumblane etc.), and some have no fences at all. Few have intrusive tall brick walls of timber paling fences.
There are few post-war buildings in the area to the south of Charles Street; these include some sympathetically-scaled brick and weatherboard houses of the 1940s and '50s, a double-storey block of 1960s flats (2 Anderson), a few 1970s brick houses (11 Chauvel; 3 Elliot), and several houses erected in the last decade or so. There is also a large vacant site that is two allotments deep at 3-5 Chauvel Street.
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 2004
Author: Heritage Alliance
Year: 2004
Grading:
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PREFABRICATED RESIDENCEVictorian Heritage Register H1207
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RAILWAY SUB STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H1199
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GLENDALOUGHVictorian Heritage Register H1202
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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10 Down StreetYarra City
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