Edinburgh Street Precinct
44-58 CANTERBURY STREET, and 42-74 & 45-69 EDINBURGH STREET, and 31-41 GLASS STREET, and 9-23 & 12-36 NEWRY STREET, RICHMOND, YARRA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Edinburgh Street Precinct comprising 44-58 Canterbury Street, 42-74 & 45-69 Edinburgh Street, 31-41 Glass Street, 9-23 & 12-36 Newry Street is significant. The following buildings and features contribute to the significance of the precinct:
- The buildings constructed from c.1870 to c.1920, as shown on the precinct map.
- The overall consistency of housing form (pitched gabled or hipped roofs, one storey wall heights with a smaller amount of two storey dwellings), materials and detailing (walls of weatherboard or face brick or stucco, prominent brick or render chimneys, post-supported verandahs facing the street), and siting (small or no front and side setbacks).
- The nineteenth century subdivision pattern comprising regular allotments served by rear bluestone laneways.
The following places are Individually Significant and have their own statement of significance:
- House, 42 Edinburgh Street,
- Houses, 58-60 Edinburgh Street, and
- House, 12 Newry Street.
Non-original alterations and additions to the Significant and Contributory buildings shown on the precinct map, and the houses at 54, 55, 57, 68 & 69 Edinburgh Street, 20, 21, 32 & 34 Newry Street, and the former shop and residence at 53 Edinburgh Street are Not Contributory.
How is it significant?
The Edinburgh Street Precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Yarra.
Why is it significant?
Historically, the precinct is associated with the significant growth of Richmond during the late nineteenth century and demonstrates how development of this area close to Burnley Street was substantially complete by 1900. The variety of housing, which ranges from simple cottages to more substantial brick villas demonstrates the mix of working and middle class housing often found in residential precincts in Richmond. The precinct is notable for the number of house pairs and terrace rows with undivided roofs, which demonstrates the lack of fire separation in houses constructed in Richmond prior to the adoption of municipal building regulations in 1886. (Criteria A & D)
The precinct is also significant as an area of late Victorian housing, ranging from small timber cottages and double-fronted houses, to bi-chrome villas and Boom-style terrace houses, with characteristic form, siting and detailing which are complemented by traditional public realm materials such as bluestone laneways. (Criterion E)
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Edinburgh Street Precinct - Physical Description 1
This is a residential area comprising housing predominantly from the late nineteenth century, with one Edwardian era house and small amount of interwar and post-war buildings. The Victorian era housing ranges from simple single and double fronted timber cottages to more elaborately styled houses with Italianate influences such as symmetrical or asymmetrical massing with a faceted bay, stucco wall finish or polychromatic brickwork, as well as ornamentation such as cast iron verandahs, rendered chimneys and stucco decoration to parapets and end walls including scrolls, masks, consoles and urns that characterises housing of the late Victorian 'Boom' period.
The houses are either detached, semi-detached as pairs, or form part of terrace rows and typically have hip (single or M-hip) or transverse gable roofs clad in slate or iron, with street verandahs (usually post-supported or set within wing walls) with hip, convex, or concave profiles (usually with cast iron frieze or timber brackets, some with original floor tiles), typical detailing such as eaves brackets and mouldings, and prominent brick or rendered chimneys. Front and side setbacks are small (with some exceptions, e.g., 59 Edinburgh) and in some cases houses are built up to the front and side boundaries (This is particularly true of the pre-1886 houses). Almost all the houses are single storey: the exceptions are the houses at 58-60 and 42 Edinburgh Street.
Of note within the precinct are the numerous examples of terrace rows and attached pairs with shared roofs, which demonstrate the extent of development prior to the introduction of the 1886 building regulations. These include the attached pairs at 56 & 58 Canterbury Street, 45 & 47, 58 & 60, 61 & 63, 65 & 67 Edinburgh Street, 31 & 33, 35 & 37, 39 & 41 Glass Street, and the terraces of three houses at 48-52 Edinburgh Street and five houses at 9-17 Newry Street.
The single fronted cottages, either detached or attached pairs, are almost all (the exceptions being 44 & 72-74 Edinburgh Street) situated along the west side of Canterbury Street, the east side of Edinburgh Street and east side of Glass Street. These include several with shared roofs, as noted above. They are constructed of either timber or brick. Of these, the timber pair at nos. 44-46 Canterbury Street is notable for the high degree of intactness, retaining the original verandah decoration and posts (two of the Corinthian capitals survive), original timber windows, eaves decoration and rendered brick chimneys. Early verandah details also survive at nos. 45, 47, 61 and 67 Edinburgh Street. Also of note are the 'Boom' style pair at nos. 49-51, which retain intact facades with ornate parapets comprising moulded cornices set between vermiculated corbels and consoles with segmental pediments flanked by scrolls and surmounted by an acroterion. The verandahs (with what may be original cast iron frieze) are set between wing walls with floral modillions and consoles.
Most of the Victorian era detached double-fronted houses are symmetrical with a central door flanked by double hung timber sash or tripartite windows and are constructed of either timber or bi-chrome or rendered brick. They are contained within Newry Street and the west side of Edinburgh Street. Of note is 'Tapao' at 18 Newry Street, a timber example, which has a high degree of intactness and integrity. Asymmetrical examples include the Italianate style house at 56 Edinburgh Street (distinguished by the projecting canted bay with a separate roof) and the asymmetrical pair at 12 & 14 Newry Street (see below for a description of 12 Newry Street).
The terrace rows at 48-52 Edinburgh Street and 9-17 Newry Street each have a shared roof. Both are constructed of bi-chromatic brick, which has been over-painted. The Edinburgh Street houses each have a tripartite window beside a front door with a toplight and the verandahs are set within wing walls with floral modillions and consoles. The Newry Street terrace, on the other hand, is much simpler and lacks the wing walls between the verandahs. Although there have been some alterations (removal of chimneys except for no. 15, overpainting of the tuckpointed face brickwork), this row retains some early fabric including the verandah frame, which includes a beaded edge fascia board (replaced at no. 9), and two over two windows (except nos. 9 & 13).
Individually Significant houses within the precinct include:
. 42 Edinburgh Street. This is a free-standing two-storey brick Victorian house with a double height verandah. The house has a hipped roof clad in slate tiles with terracotta ridge capping, and a stuccoed and corniced chimney. The principal facade is stuccoed, and has four double-hung sash windows with stilted segmentally arched lintels with keystones and moulded stringcourses. The house has a north wing wall with moulded coffers and a modillion supporting one end of the first floor verandah.
. 58-60 Edinburgh Street. This comprises a pair of two-storey attached polychromatic brick houses. Italianate in style, they have brown brick walls with cream and red window dressings and quoining. There is a concave-profiled corrugated-iron clad single-storey verandah between brick wing walls with rendered copings and vermiculated consoles. The verandahs have cast iron lacework friezes. The rendered parapet has a cornice and central segmental pediment flanked by scrolls and decorated with a shell motif. Windows are timber-framed double-hung sashes.
. 12 Newry Street. As noted in the history, this semi-detached house, one of 'mirror-image' pair with no. 14 (now altered) was built for, and presumably by, Clements Langford. It is an asymmetrically planned Italianate villa with a verandah to one side of the facade and a projecting bay with a tripartite window to the other. The verandah retains cast-iron columns and cast-iron integrated frieze and brackets and the floor retains cream and red tessellated tiles edged with bluestone. The facade is rendered, while the side elevations are of face brick. The house is distinguished by its highly ornate cement-render detailing, including paired cornice brackets with raised panels and floral modillions and raised panels, label moulds over the tripartite window with floral bosses, barley-twist colonettes framing the windows (which are also ledged with scroll brackets), and large incised floral patterns on the rendered walls. The four panel door is framed by sidelights and highlights. Apart from the roof tiles, the house has a high degree of intactness and integrity.
The house at 22 Newry Street is a Queen Anne style timber villa. Typically, it is asymmetrical in plan with a hipped roof that extends to form a return verandah with a gablet above a casement window set at the corner of the verandah to create a strong diagonal axis. The projecting bay has bracketed gable ends and a boy bay casement window with coloured toplights and half timbering above. Other windows are double hung sash and other original detailing includes the turned verandah posts with ornate brackets and a ladder frieze. The major visible change has been the removal of the chimneys.
While there have been some alterations (e.g. changes to verandah form and detailing, replacement of windows, over-painting of brickwork, and removal of chimneys) many houses have good integrity when viewed from the street. While double storey additions at the rear of houses in Newry Street (and one in Canterbury Street) are visible they are set back behind the main roof and are not overly intrusive. Fences are mostly low and although some are sympathetic, none are original. High front fences mar the appearance of some houses.
Also contributory to the historic character of the precinct are the bluestone laneways at the side and rear of 9-17 Newry Street, the rear of 12-22 Newry Street, and rear of 48-52 Edinburgh Street.
Not Contributory buildings in the precinct include the interwar and post-war houses at 54, 55, 57 & 68 Edinburgh Street, 20, 21 & 32 Newry Street, and the former shop and residence at 53 Edinburgh Street. Also Not Contributory are the houses at 69 Edinburgh Street, and 34 Newry Street: although probably nineteenth century in origin, they have been extensively altered and have low integrity and intactness.
Heritage Study and Grading
Yarra - Heritage Gap Study: Review of Central Richmond 2014
Author: Context P/L
Year: 2014
Grading: LocalYarra - Heritage Gap Study
Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
Year: 2007
Grading:
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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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