Chatsworth Road Precinct
Chatsworth Road PRAHRAN, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Chatsworth Road Precinct is a streetscape of late nineteenth and early twentieth century residential buildings. The land boom of the 1880s provided the initial stimulus for development on Chatsworth Road. A range of dwellings from modest timber villas to substantial one and two-storey terraces and ornate villas survive from this period. Further residential development was undertaken c1900-1910 on sites left undeveloped through the recession of the 1890s. Houses from this period typically occur as semi-detached dwellings.
Elements which contribute to the significance of the precinct include (but are not limited to):
-intactness of the area to its c1910 state arising from the low proportion of modern infill and the absence of prominent modern additions;
-the extent to which Edwardian dwellings such as those at 36-46 and 62-68 Chatsworth Road illustrate the resurgence in building activity after the 1890s depression;
-intactness of individual buildings to their original states. Dwellings typically survive with their presentation to the street largely unaltered retaining verandahs and decorative detailing;
-face brick, timber or render materiality and roofscapes with chimneys and pitched roofs in slate or terracotta tiles or plain galvanised corrugated metal;
-generally uniform front setbacks and modest side setbacks;
-allotment patterns resulting from the original late nineteenth century subdivision; and,
-verdant character arising from the mature street trees and the high proportion of properties retaining undeveloped front gardens.
How is it significant?
The Chatsworth Road Precinct is of local historical and aesthetic significance.
Why is it significant?
The Chatsworth Road Precinct is of historical significance for its ability to demonstrate the nature of middle class housing estates in nineteenth century Prahran and the important relationship between topography and social class in this period (Historic Theme: 8.2.1 Mansion Estates and the Higher Ground - Middle Class Estates in Prahran). The sloping topography of the area resulted in smaller working class cottages on low lying ground to the west and mansions on the higher ground to the east along Grandview Grove, with Chatsworth Road forming a transition zone of somewhat more modest middle class housing.
The precinct is also historically significant as an illustration of the way in which the depression of the early 1890s produced a hiatus in building works which endured for almost two decades. This mechanism was instrumental in creating the mixed character of the Chatsworth Road streetscape with Victorian villas interspersed with Edwardian dwellings of an entirely different architectural expression and no built form to illustrate the transition between the two (Historic Theme: 3.3.5 Recovery and Infill).
The precinct is of aesthetic significance for the quality of its varied late nineteenth and early twentieth century built form and the intactness, integrity and legibility to its mature 1910s state. Dwellings in the precinct typically reflect polite builders' domestic designs although some examples adopt a more refined architectural character, including the double-storey terrace pair at 52-54 Chatsworth Road. The Edwardian semi-detached villas in the precinct are also noteworthy for the extent to which their designers have worked to conceal the dual unit nature of these buildings with the appearance of freestanding middle-class villas.
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Chatsworth Road Precinct - Physical Description 1
Although Grandview Grove offered allotments of a similar size to those in Chatsworth Road, their earliest residential developments were fundamentally different. Grandview Grove is noted for substantial houses, typically of two storeys, often occupying two allotments.
Chatsworth Road attracted more modest, but nonetheless substantial middle class villas in brick and timber. Houses on the east side of the road are mostly of one storey but typically occupy elevated sites which add to their stature. Short sequences of cottages and villas such as those at 84-90 may be the work of a single developer although the Victorian built form more often comprises one-off designs. The somewhat anomalous terrace buildings at 52-4 and 78 are more consistent with development in Grandview Grove. The Edwardian semi-detached residences at 62-74 and 36-46 illustrate the closing stages of the development of the street. These pairs typically present a symmetrical facade to the street but occasionally adopt a considered asymmetry to create the appearance and prestige of a single, more substantial, villa. A small number of buildings such as No 50, a handsome Italianate villa in polychrome brick, are of some individual note.
Built form on the west side of Chatsworth Road is more consistently Victorian in character. Most dwellings are single-storey asymmetrical timber villas reflecting the Italianate influences of the 1880s. There is also a fine and notably intact brick terrace row at 39-49 Chatsworth Road.
Two blocks of flats, one interwar and one postwar, and two modern residences are the only interventions postdating the key period of significance.
Chatsworth Road Precinct - Historical Australian Themes
The following themes are drawn from the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, 2006, Addendum March 2009).
3.3.5 Recovery and Infill 1900-1940
8.2.1 Mansion Estates and the Higher Ground - Middle Class Estates in Prahran
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Heritage Overlay Gap Study - Heritage Overlay Precincts Final Report
Author: Bryce Raworth P/L
Year: 2009
Grading: Various
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ARMADALE PRIMARY SCHOOLVictorian Heritage Register H1640
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PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1467Victorian Heritage Register H1032
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MANDEVILLE HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0676
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