QUANTOX FLATS
9 CHURCH STREET,, TOORAK VIC 3142 - Property No 1705
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
Quantox flats, 9 Church Street, Toorak designed by G.S. Luttrell and constructed in 1928-9, is significant. The significant attributes are the Arts & Crafts style form, materials and detailing of the flats as designed by Luttrell, the original outbuildings, and the high degree of intactness of the flats, outbuildings and their setting.
Later alterations and additions are not significant.
How is it significant?
Quantox flats are of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally and aesthetically, Quantox flats is a rare and very successful example of the application of an Arts & Crafts commercial style to residential flats. It is also distinguished for its fine detailing, such as the reinforcing curves of the parapet, stairwell window and porch balustrade, and for the very high level of intactness of the flats building and its setting. (Criteria B & E)
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QUANTOX FLATS - Physical Description 1
Quantox Flats, 9 Church Street, Toorak, is a two-storey block of flats in the Arts and Crafts style. It has a small set back from the street, behind a boundary hedge about 2 metres high. The site is entered via pedestrian gates on the west side of the frontage or a driveway on the east side. Both entries are flanked by gate piers of red and clinker brick. The pedestrian gate is topped by a delicate arch of wrought-iron scrolls, with a lantern at the top. The driveway retains its separated track paving, which was typical of the 1920s. It leads to a small, hipped garage at the end of the drive. There is a second original garage at the north-west corner of the site, sited on Google Maps, but it was not inspected.
The building has a hipped roof with wide eaves, clad in Marseille tiles, with roughcast-rendered chimneys. Walls are finished primarily with roughcast render, with detailing in smooth render (e.g., pilasters, mouldings, quoins, brackets), and a plinth of dark clinker bricks. The facade is symmetrical, with a projecting entrance porch at the centre. The sides of the porch are articulated with heavy render quoins, repeated on the corners of the building. The porch retains its original terrazzo steps and floor, as well as varnished timber doors with six small bevelled lights at the top. Above it is a delicate wrought-iron balustrade between low piers.
At the centre of the first floor, the wall is set back and framed by pilasters. The wall and the pilasters project above the roofline to create a narrow parapet, which is bracketed by terminal roof hips. The parapet comprises an arch flanked by low piers, a feature typical of Arts & Crafts commercial buildings in the first three decades of the 20th century. The parapet is simply ornamented by a row of three projecting vertical lines, also typical of this style. The arched parapet is mirrored by the window below it, which has a semicircular blind arch filled with a simple geometric mosaic. The window below, to the stairwell, has a restrained geometric leadlight. The balustrade above the porch also echoes the parapet form at its centre.
On either side of the centre bay are pairs of nine-over-one sash windows, at the ground and first floor. At the edges of the facade are balconies set in behind large rectangular openings in the wall, with curved planter boxes set on four central brackets. Each balcony is accessed via a high-waisted door with tiny leadlight panes.
The two side elevations are articulated by three double-storey window bays. At either side are narrower bays, with clinker bricks below triple nine-over-one sash box windows resting on timber brackets. There is an identical triple window to the first floor above, with a timber shingle skirt below them. The central window bay is wider, with bow windows comprised of four nine-over-nine sashes, also with the shingle skirt between the floors.
The pedestrian gate on the west side has a more rectilinear design than the wrought-iron arch above it and the balustrade above the entry porch, and may be a slightly later addition (c1930s-40s). The building itself is highly intact, with no external changes noted.
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - Residential Flats in Stonnington - Heritage Citations Project
Author: Context P/L
Year: 2013
Grading: A2
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