Toorak Village Precinct
527-533A & 464-484 TOORAK ROAD, 60 ROSS STREET, and 159 CANTERBURY ROAD, TOORAK, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Toorak Village precinct comprises the substantially intact collection of Victorian, Edwardian and interwar buildings located at the eastern end of the Toorak Village shopping strip. The precinct developed from a modest cluster of shops and dwellings in the 1850s servicing the mansions and villas of the gentry. In the late 1920s and 1930s, a number of properties within the precinct were refurbished in a Tudor Revival style, creating a character which, to a large extent, remains intact and distinguishes Toorak Village from other small shopping strips within the Municipality.
Elements which contribute to the significance of the precinct include (but are not limited to):
- The high degree of intactness to an interwar state.
- The generally high integrity of upper level facades and original detailing and finishes typically comprising half-timbering, render, and face brick.
- The attached form of retail buildings with uniform front setbacks.
- The consistent two-storey scale of buildings.
- The picturesque composition of Tudor Revival facades.
- Gabled and hipped terracotta tiled roofs or parapeted facades with concealed roofs.
- The form and fabric of extant early shopfronts.
- External signage on retail buildings mostly restricted to traditional signage zones on verandah fascias, or suspended from the underside of the vernadahs.
How is it significant?
Toorak Village precinct is of historical and aesthetic significance at a local level.
Why is it significant?
Toorak Village precinct is historically significant as a shopping strip which has serviced the local community since the mid 1850s (Historic Theme: 7.1 Serving local communities). The special character of the Village that emerged in the interwar period reflects the tastes of its affluent clientele (7.2 Creating Specialised Shopping Centres).
Toorak Village is aesthetically significant as a substantially intact collection of late-Victorian, Edwardian and interwar retail buildings. Of particular interest are Tudor revival style shops which define the character of the village. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century shops are less distinctive but are nonetheless significant for their ability to demonstrate the early character of the village prior to its interwar makeover. The buildings in the precinct also compliment, and enhance the setting of, the two individually significant Tudor revival shops at 474-480 and 535-539 Toorak Road.
The former stables at the rear of the precinct (at 60 Ross Street) are significant for the rarity of this building type in the municipality, and for their ability to demonstrate how businesses in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries relied on horse drawn transport (4.3.2 Changing Modes of Transport - from horses to motor vehicles).
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Toorak Village Precinct - Physical Description 1
The Toorak Village shopping strip occupies both sides of Toorak Road between Tintern Avenue and Canterbury Road. It retains a number of properties dating from the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Other buildings of interest include those refurbished in a Tudor mode during the 1920s and 1930s.
A number of modern infill buildings have been constructed in the area during the second half of the twentieth century but the general scale and much of the early character of the area survives intact, particularly at the eastern end where key Tudor revival style buildings stand at 476-480 and 535-539 Toorak Road. These two buildings have been added to the schedule to the Heritage Overlay. Another fine Tudor style shop building is located at 527-533A Toorak Road. It has a picturesque half-timbered facade with a curved oriel window at one end and a crenelated bay window at the other. The facade remains largely intact except at ground floor level where all but one of the original shop fronts have all been modernised.
On the south side of Toorak Road, the streetscape is at its most intact between Ross Street and Canterbury Road. This streetscape includes a row of Victorian Italianate shops at 464-470 Toorak Road with a nineteenth century stables at the rear at 60 Ross Street. The stables have a modern fence and shopfront and most original openings have been infilled, but otherwise remain broadly intact. At 472-474 Toorak Road there is a pair of double-storey interwar shops with a Moderne style fin rising above the parapet. Next to these is the aforementioned Tudor style building at 476-480 Toorak Road. Further east is a double-storey Edwardian shop with a transverse gable roof and half timbering, presumably added in the interwar or post war periods. The corner site at 484 Toorak Road is occupied by a plainer double-storey Edwardian commercial building with a modern shopfront.
Toorak Village Precinct - Local Historical Themes
4.3.2 Changing Modes of Transport - from horses to motor vehicles
7.1 Serving Local Communities
7.2 Creating Specialised shopping centresHeritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - Shops in the City of Stonnington Heritage Citations Project
Author: Bryce Raworth Pty Ltd
Year: 2011
Grading: Various
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COMO HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0205
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BARWONVictorian Heritage Register H0825
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TINTERNVictorian Heritage Register H0208
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