Terrace
64-74 Upton Road WINDSOR, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The terrace row at 64-74 Upton Road, Windsor, is significant. It was built in 1890 for owner Malcolm McDiarmid as rental properties. The houses were built in two groups, which are separated by an additional party wall.
All six of the houses have a separate roof form, and the walls are of tuckpointed Hawthorn brick with cream brick dressings in lively quoining and diaper patterns, as well as red bricks to the blind arches of the verandah wing walls. The patterning differs slightly between the two groups. All have the same distinctive chimney form: rendered with a cornice, ornamented by vermiculated panels on each face. Overall they can be described as Italianate in style, with a Boom-style influence to nos. 64 & 66.
The pair of houses at nos. 64 & 66 each have a pedimented parapet at the front, with balusters and a fine cast-cement half-shell. Unusually, they retain an early or original yellow ochre colourwash on rendered elements such as consoles on the verandah wing walls and the parapets. The four houses at nos. 68-74 have bracketed eaves instead of a pediment, and heavier cast-iron verandah friezes with a fern and fleur-de-lys pattern.
The rear extension to no. 66, overpainting to brickwork, and replacement front doors are not significant.
How is it significant?
The terrace row is of local architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.
Why is it significant?
Architecturally, as the terrace row is a highly intact representative example of the brick terrace houses built in the late Victorian period in working-class Windsor. The two parts of the row are illustrative of the evolution of a single builder's approach to terrace houses; both those with bracketed eaves and those with parapet fronts. Typical features include polychrome brickwork, corniced chimneys, and cast-iron detail to the verandah. Its post-1885 construction date is indicated by the presence of separated roof forms for each dwelling. (Criterion D)
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Terrace - Physical Description 1
The six houses at 64-74 Upton Road, Windsor, comprise a terrace row built in two stages, as indicated by a double party wall between nos. 66 and 68. While the two groups differ in some important details, they share other details that indicate their joint authorship.
Each house has a separate roof, clad in corrugated iron (probably original at nos. 72 and 74), and divided by a valley gutter. The roofs of nos. 64 and 66 are gabled at the front, where they meet the parapet, and hipped at the back, while those at nos. 68-74 are fully hipped with eaves at the front. All have a narrower rear wing, which share one party wall with a neighbour.
All of the houses have front walls of tuckpointed Hawthorn brick with cream brick dressings in lively patterns, as well as red bricks to the blind arches of the verandah wing walls. The cream bricks are used as zigzag quoins around windows, doors and corners, banded segmental arches to openings, and diaper patterns below the front window (a single motif at nos. 64 & 66; a band of them at nos. 68-74). The houses at nos. 68-74 also have a diaper pattern alternating with paired brackets to the eaves. All houses have a large sash window with sidelights set off by barley twist colonnettes with a boss at the centre. The window sills of nos. 64 & 66 are squared bluestone, while those at nos. 668-74 are of moulded cement. The front doors have four fielded panels and a highlight, with sidelights as well at nos. 64 & 66. The houses also share the same distinctive chimney form: a rendered Italianate form with a cornice, ornamented by vermiculated panels on each face. The houses at nos. 64 & 68 retain their original cream and terracotta biscuit tile floor.
The most striking differences between the two groups are the contrasting use of parapet or eaves, and in the verandah detail. Numbers 64 & 66 have parapeted fronts, while the remaining houses have bracketed eaves. The parapets of nos. 64 & 66 have ornate classical detail with a dentilated cornice and rows of balusters flanking a dentilated round-arched pediment. The pediment is open at its centre, framing an elegant and fluidly modelled shell motif. The pediment was flanked by cast-concrete orbs (only one survives at no. 64), with cast-concrete urns at the ends of the parapet. The parapets retain traces of an original or early ochre limewash, seen best below the cornice and on the shell, as well as on the verandah end walls. It is rare for nineteenth-century houses to retain their original finish.
The verandahs all have slightly concave roofs (generally replaced with straight iron). All have stop-chamfered verandah beams resting on a single Corinthian column. The frieze and bracket pattern seen at nos. 64 & 66 is a popular design featuring a vase with three flowers and a quarter-round bracket. The cast iron used for nos. 68-74 is a heavier and less common pattern featuring fern fronds in a fleur-de-lys motif.
Alterations include an attic-storey extension at the very rear of no. 66 (of 2005), the replacement of front doors c1910 at nos. 68 & 70, the removal of the kitchen (rear) chimneys at nos. 64-70, overpainting of cream bricks at no. 74, and the replacement of the front door with a sympathetic reproduction at no. 70.
Terrace - Local Historical Themes
This place illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context rev. 2009):
3.3.3 Speculators and land boomers
8.5.1 'Struggletown' - working-class housing in the nineteenth & early twentieth century
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study
Author: City of Stonnington
Year: 2016
Grading: A2
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PRIMARY SCHOOL NO. 1467Victorian Heritage Register H1032
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PRAHRAN TOWN HALLVictorian Heritage Register H0203
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FORMER POLICE STATION AND COURT HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0542
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"1890"Yarra City
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'BRAESIDE'Boroondara City
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'ELAINE'Boroondara City
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