HOUSE
634 BELL STREET,, PRESTON VIC 3072
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The house, constructed c.1925 in the California bungalow style, at 634 Bell Street, Preston. The original form, external materials and detailing, and siting of the house contribute to its significance.
Later alterations and additions and the front fence are not significant.
How is it significant?
The house at 634 Bell Street, Preston is of local architectural significance to Darebin City.
Why is it significant?
It is architecturally significant as a fine example of a inter-war bungalow, with a dominant roof form and detailing that is typical of the style. The detailing to the gable ends and windows is especially notable. (Criterion D)
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HOUSE - Historical Australian Themes
5. Building Suburban Darebin
5.1 Patterns of settlement
5.3 Developing the suburban idealHOUSE - Physical Description 1
Number 634 Bell Street is a good example of an inter-war California type bungalow. Essentially rectangular in plan, with a projecting bay on the east side of its frontal facade, the house has a gable roof of terracotta tiles with deep eaves, ram's horn finials and two chimneys supported on its western outside wall. The facade gable end of the main roof is inset with a louvred ventilator and decorated with wall-hung shingles and board and batten decoration arranged to mirror the slope of the minor gable, whilst that of the minor gable itself is roughcast rendered around two small vents.
The front wall comprises painted brick up to the dado level, above which the brick is roughcast rendered. The three frontal bays of the house, including the projecting bay, are arranged between four brick piers, each of which is decorated with plaster recesses on each face. The westernmost pier is set back at the western corner of the house but the two central examples support a small verandah defined by a low rendered brick balustrade wall in front of the main double entrance. The extant door and all of the frontal windows feature leadlight glass. Three of these comprise twin two-pane sash windows; two in the bays flanking the door, which are each supported by three small painted corbels, and one in the major gable. The fourth, to the side of the doorway, is a small top hung awning window.
A fifth brick pier, set back at the eastern side of the house, supports one corner of what was probably a contemporary sleep-out beneath a very shallow pitched verandah roof. The spaces between the roof and the half-height roughcast rendered walls were probably originally open, or filled with screens, but these have since been filled with horizontal paned casement windows of likely post 1930 date.
The house is in good condition and has a relatively high degree of external integrity. A number of small extensions have been added to the rear and eastern side of the house. All appear to have corrugated metal roofs but all are relatively low and none is visible from the street. It is likely that the garden has been simplified, to what is now a lawn with some border plants, but two mature trees remain in the south west corner of the plot. The existing wooden fence is probably a replacement.
Heritage Study and Grading
Darebin - Darebin Heritage Study
Author: Context P/L
Year: 2011
Grading: Local
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