Waterloo Precinct
Waterloo St, Anglesea Tce, Maitland St, Wellington St, Picton St, Kings Lane, O'Connell St, Preston St, Candover St, Weller St, Ashby Lane, Hope St, and Ripley Street Geelong West, GREATER GEELONG CITY
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Statement of Significance
Statement of Significance - LOCAL significance
The Waterloo Heritage precinct has significance as one of the earliest surviving suburban areas in Geelong West where some of the most intense building activity occurred from the 1850s. The area has further significance for its residential building activity from the second half of the 19th century until the Second World War. This is reflected in the notable concentration of modestly scaled, single storey, Victorian, Late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar Bungalow styled dwellings built between the 1850s and early 1940s, with the evolution of residential building development forming part of the significance of the area. Most of the dwellings are standard in design and of timber construction, reflecting the working class population for which they were built. There are a few dwellings of more substantial design and/or of brick construction. Most of the streets and allotments were laid out as part of early 1850s subdivisions. These subdivisions included the Waterloo and Shirley Estates, the eastern parts of which were punctuated by the construction of the Melbourne to Geelong railway line between 1854 and 1857. The close proximity of the railway line brought about a notable population of railway employees in the area in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally a mixed residential, commercial and cultural area, the only buildings associated with non-residential uses that contribute to the significance of the precinct today are the former shop and dwelling at 11 Preston Street, Geelong West Kindergarten at 46-54 O'Connell Street, former corner store at 31 Hope Street and Tucker's Funerals building at 57 Hope Street. Further contributing to the significance of the area is the surviving 19th and early 20th century engineering infrastructure in the rear and side lanes with bluestone spoon drains, bluestone kerbs and channels in Weller and Picton Streets, and the bluestone kerbs and concrete channels in Candover and Wellington Streets. Kenworthy Reserve, between Wellington and Maitland Street, represents the only public recreation area in the precinct, established in 1940-41, after the demolition of the Ashby Methodist Chapel on the site in 1939.
The Waterloo Heritage precinct is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2). The precinct demonstrates a mix of modest and predominantly standard Victorian, Late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar Bungalow architectural styles, built from the 1850s until the early 1940s. Most of the significant dwellings in the area are single storey with hipped and/or gabled roof forms, front or return verandahs, timber weatherboard wall cladding, corrugated sheet metal roof cladding, timber framed windows, brick chimneys and verandah decoration typical for construction of each dwelling. There are also a much smaller but notable number of dwellings built of brick construction and/or with slate roofs. The precinct has a noteworthy concentration of dwellings built in the 1850s together with some of the largest groupings of Victorian and Late Victorian dwellings of the 1880s and 1890s compared to the wider Geelong West area. The surviving bluestone and bluestone and concrete kerb and channel and spoon drains, and Kenworthy Reserve between Wellington and Maitland Streets, contribute to the aesthetic significance of the area and further reveal the evolution of development in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Waterloo Heritage precinct is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A.4). Initially established as a mixed cultural, commercial and residential area, the precinct has associations with some of the more intense building activity in Geelong West from the 1850s, a consequence of the layout of subdivisions of Crown Allotments 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Today, this historical significance is embodied in the surviving physical fabric: the layout of the streets and allotments, and the small but notable number of mid 19th century residential building stock. The historical importance of the area also lies in the evolution of building development, particularly during the 1850s and 1870s, and especially during the 1880s and 1890s, Federation period (1900-1919) and the interwar (1920-early 1940s) era when the precinct was largely transformed into a residential suburb. Surviving legacies of non-residential uses in the area are the former shop and dwelling, 11 Preston Street (built 1855-56) and the interwar developments of the Geelong West Kindergarten, 46-54 O'Connell Street (built 1921), former corner store, 31 Hope Street (built 1922-23), and Tucker's Funerals, 57 Hope Street (built 1928-29). Embodied in the history of the area is the Geelong to Melbourne Railway line, laid out between 1854 and 1857, which punctuated and separated the original subdivision estates. A mainly working class area (as reflected in the modest and standard dwellings), a number of railway employees were original owners in the precinct during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically, the area was known for its cultural - and to a lesser degree - commercial life which faded by the mid 20th century. The precinct was known for its strong Wesleyan population from the 1850s, with the building of three chapels: Primitive Methodist Chapel in Weller Street (built c.1853); United Free Methodist Church in Preston Street (built 1855) and the Ashby Methodist Chapel in Wellington Street (built 1858 and demolished with its associated Sunday School and kindergarten buildings in 1939). The Order of the Sons of Temperance continued to have a presence in the Waterloo area at the former Chapel in Preston Street until the late 19th or early 20th century. Also important in the precinct in the mid-19th century were the denominational schools, including the Wellington Street Free Presbyterian School, opened in the 1850s, Ashby National School at the northern end of Latrobe Terrace was opened in c.1854, United Free Methodist Church School No. 551 that began in 1855 in the Preston Street chapel, and a Protestant Free School that opened in O'Connell Street in 1866-67. None of these school buildings survive today.
Overall, the Waterloo Heritage Precinct is of LOCAL significance.
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Heritage Study and Grading
Greater Geelong - Ashby Heritage Review
Author: D Rowe and W Jacobs
Year: 2010
Grading:
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