ST JOHN'S WOOD & SAGE'S PADDOCK PRECINCT
6-28 Avenue Road and 7-53 Avenue Road and 2-48 St John's Avenue and 7-45 St John's Avenue CAMBERWELL, BOROONDARA CITY
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
St John's Wood & Sage's Paddock Precinct is significant. It comprises 6-28 & 7-53 Avenue Road and 2-48 & 7-45 St Johns Avenue, Camberwell. Development in the precinct began in the early 1880s, associated largely with two suburban subdivisions: 'St John's Wood Estate' of 1882, which formed St Johns Avenue, and 'Sage's Paddock Estate' of 1888, which formed the west side of Avenue Road. Development occurred rapidly, with almost all Contributory houses built by 1891. The houses on St John's Avenue are mainly timber cottages, while there are more dwellings of brick construction along Avenue Road. On both streets there is a mix of detached houses and rows of identical cottages, both single and double-fronted.
The bluestone laneway and bluestone kerbing are contributory elements of the precinct.
The properties at 11, 15 (Units 1 & 2) & 29-35 Avenue Road and 15, 17, 21 (Units 1 & 2), 28-28A, 29-31, & 38-40 St Johns Avenue are Non-contributory to the precinct. The remaining properties are Contributory.
How is it significant?
St John's Wood & Sage's Paddock Precinct is of local historical, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
St John's Wood & Sage's Paddock Precinct is significant for demonstrating the presence of early modest housing development in Camberwell, a suburb best known for its prosperous middle-class (and upper-middle class) residents and their fine villas (many of them architect-designed). Early residents were largely in building and other trades (such as printers, bootmakers, wheelwrights, and drapers), and they would have provided services to other Camberwell residents, as well as owning and working in shops and other businesses in the adjacent Camberwell Junction commercial area. The precinct is also significant for demonstrating the major impact which the coming of the railway in 1882 had on the start of suburban development in the once-rural Camberwell. The proximity of the new Camberwell Station to the north stimulated the first suburban subdivisions in the area, one of which was the 1882 'St John's Wood Estate'. Construction in the precinct began soon after, with the first dwellings completed in 1884. (Criterion A)
The houses in the precinct demonstrate the principal characteristics of modest late Victorian Italianate dwellings, many of which were constructed across Melbourne's suburbs during the boom years of the 1880s. The typical features of these dwellings are a low-line hipped roof (with an internal valley for the double-fronted houses, creating the classic M-profile roof), slate roof cladding, rendered chimneys with a classical cornice, bracketed eaves, a front verandah supported on slender Corinthian columns or stop-chamfered posts with a convex profile corrugated-iron roof, narrow double-hung sash windows, many with sidelights, and a four-panelled front door with raised mouldings and a highlight and sidelights. The houses in the precinct demonstrate the range of cladding materials for this type of dwellings, ranging from simple square-edged weatherboards, to more decorative ashlar boards, ruled render (to resemble stone ashlar), and bichrome brickwork. (Criterion D)
The precinct is of aesthetic significance for its visual cohesion, created by the rapid construction of almost all Contributory houses in the space of less than 10 years, as well as by the development of many rows of identical houses by a small group of local builder-developers. Appreciation of the rhythm of the roofs and chimneys is enhanced by the slight downhill slope from Riversdale Road. This cohesion is enhanced by the survival of typical 19th-century paving treatments (asphalt) and the use of bluestone for the kerbs and rear laneway. Its aesthetic significance is enhanced by a number of fine double-fronted Italianate houses which have a higher than average level of decorative detail and intactness, including 7 Avenue Road, and 7, 11, 13, 14, 32 and 36 St Johns Avenue, as well as the notable late Federation Bungalow at 48 St Johns Avenue. (Criterion E)
-
-
ST JOHN'S WOOD & SAGE'S PADDOCK PRECINCT - Physical Description 1
The St John's Wood & Sage's Paddock Precinct is located along two short north-south oriented streets, Avenue Road and St Johns Avenue, that run between Riversdale and Camberwell roads, just east of the commercial area of Camberwell Junction.
Both streets have asphalt-paved roadways, and retain asphalt footpaths with kerbs of small bluestone blocks. Avenue Road is quite narrow, without nature strips, and as a result tree plantings are small in size. There is an L-shaped rear laneway that runs between the two streets, starting beside 2 St Johns Avenue. It is paved with the original bluestone pitches for its entire length.
The houses on St John's Avenue are mainly timber cottages, while there are more dwellings of brick construction along Avenue Road. On both streets there is a mix of single houses and rows of identical cottages of modest but highly consistent design, illustrating Camberwell's early development and the presence of working class residents in what was a predominantly middle-class suburb. Many of the houses are single-fronted, and the scale of all houses is relatively modest for Camberwell. The precinct is characterised by the involvement of builders and investors who purchased a number of lots from the original subdivisions where they constructed rows of identical dwellings. The repetitive rhythm of the roofs and chimneys is emphasised by the slight downhill slope from Riversdale Road, which makes this roofscape more visible.
Front setbacks are very regular along St Johns Avenue, reflecting its very rapid development. The houses on this street have modest front garden setbacks, and the single-fronted houses are closely packed. On Avenue Road, there are generally deep front setbacks along the east side of the street, and very modest front gardens to Sussex Terrace on the west side. (NB: Sussex Terrace comprises closely spaced single-fronted houses, but it is not a joined terrace in the traditional sense.)
Almost all Contributory houses in the precinct can be described as Italianate in style, with single-fronted and double-fronted examples, as well as a small number of attached dwellings (2-4 & 43-45 St Johns Avenue, 19 & 21 Avenue Road). The typical features of these dwellings are a low-line hipped roof (with an internal valley for the double-fronted houses, creating the classic M-profile roof), rendered chimneys with a classical cornice, bracketed eaves, a front verandah supported on slender Corinthian columns or stop-chamfered posts with a convex profile corrugated-iron roof, narrow double-hung sash windows, many with sidelights, and a four-panelled front door with raised mouldings and a highlight and sidelights. It is likely that all of the Italianate houses originally had slate-clad roofs, and about half retain slates, some with a decorative band, while others have been replaced with corrugated steel or tiles. The wall cladding of the Italianate houses shows the most variety, ranging from simple square-edged weatherboards, to more decorative ashlar boards, ruled render (to resemble stone ashlar), and bichrome brickwork (36, 43 & 45 St Johns Avenue, 7, 19 & 21 Avenue Road) which is the rarest type in the precinct.
The only houses in the precinct that do not have a visible hipped roof with bracketed eaves is the semi-detached pair at 19 & 21 Avenue Road, which each have a grand front parapet in the Boom Style manner so popular in the 1880s. Each parapet has a simple cornice resting on paired brackets with vermiculated panels and bosses between, above which is a balustrade parapet with a raised name plaque in the middle.
Apart from this pair, the finest houses in the precinct include 7 St Johns Avenue. It is a double-fronted Italianate house clad in ashlar boards, with a slate roof. It retains generous proportions, decorative mouldings around the paired front windows, leadlights around the front door, and intact verandah posts and cast-iron.
The house at 13 St Johns Avenue is one of just three double-fronted Italianate houses in the precinct to have a more picturesque asymmetrical facade, with a projecting canted bay to one side of the front facade, balanced by a return verandah to the other. (The others are 11 & 32 St Johns Avenue). It is also distinguished by its timber detailing, with round-arched front within with moulded surrounds, and a scalloped fringe to the eaves.
Another is a double-fronted bichrome brick house at 7 Avenue Road, which has lively and somewhat unusual brick patterning to corners and around openings as well as retaining ruby flashed glass sidelights to windows and the front door, and verandah detail including bluestone front steps, cast-iron frieze and brackets, and barley-sugar (twisted) cast-iron columns (though the capitals have been lost). There are engaged barley-sugar colonnettes to the windows as well.
Finally, there is the late Federation Bungalow at 48 St Johns Avenue. Typical of Federation and Edwardian houses, it has a projecting gabled bay to one side of the facade, and a verandah which continues the line of the tiled high hipped roof. Walls are of red face brick, with roughcast render to the front gable and neck of the bow window below it. Windows are casement sashes. The verandah supports are unusual astylar bulbous columns. The house is highly intact, and is complementary to the precinct in its scale and setbacks.
While there is an overall high level of intactness of the building envelopes of the Contributory houses in the precinct, a significant number have lost their original verandah posts or other verandah elements. In most cases, these have been replaced in a sympathetic but not always accurate way. For future restoration works, it is recommended that the details of other identical house be used, as there are many houses built by a single builder in the precinct. For example, in Sussex Terrace, the row comprising 6-28 Avenue Road, No. 20 retains an entirely intact verandah that can serve as a model. Apart from alterations to verandahs, a few timber houses have been over-clad to resemble brick (45 Avenue Road, 30 St Johns Avenue), one had its windows replaced and aluminium weatherboard cladding installed, another few have enlarged replacement windows (22 & 27 St Johns Avenue, and the face brick of 43 St Johns Avenue has been overpainted.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study: Vol. 2 Camberwell
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
-
-
-
-
-
FORMER ES&A BANKVictorian Heritage Register H0534
-
FORMER ROBIN BOYD HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0879
-
CAMBERWELL COURT HOUSE AND POLICE STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H1194
-
"1890"Yarra City
-
"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
-
"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
-
'ELAINE'Boroondara City
-
-oonahYarra City
-
..eld HouseYarra City
-
-