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Victoria Road Precinct
Albert Street and Cambridge Street and Freeman Street and Grandview Grove and Hallcroft Place and Irelands Lane and Lilydale Grove and Lingwell Road and Lorne Road and Rathmines Road and Stanley Avenue and Station Street and Stewart Street and Temple Stre
Victoria Road Precinct
Albert Street and Cambridge Street and Freeman Street and Grandview Grove and Hallcroft Place and Irelands Lane and Lilydale Grove and Lingwell Road and Lorne Road and Rathmines Road and Stanley Avenue and Station Street and Stewart Street and Temple Stre
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
Victoria Road Precinct, comprising 3-7 and 4-8 Albert Street, 1-27 and 2-20 Cambridge Street, 1-5 and 2-4 Freeman Street, 1-3 and 2-10A and 14 Grandview Grove, 1-11 and 2-8 Hallcroft Place, 2-6 Irelands Lane, 40-92 Lilydale Grove, 1-65 and 4-40 Lingwell Road, 1-11 and 2-10 Lorne Road, 14–170 and 212-224 Rathmines Road, 1-21 and 2-24 Stanley Avenue, 3-25 and 6-36 Station Street, 1-15 and 2-24 Stewart Street, 1-15 and 2-10 Temple Street, 1-23 and 2-28 Victoria Grove, and 1-97, 125-161 and 34-164 Victoria Road, Hawthorn East, is significant. The majority of the houses were built in the late Victorian period (mid 1880s-1890s) with significant further infill in the Edwardian and interwar eras.
The following houses with site-specific HOs are Significant: 12 Grandview Grove (HO51), 2-4A Station Street (HO120-HO123), and 149 Victoria Road (HO428). The majority of properties are contributory elements to the overall significance of the precinct as well as the bluestone laneways and kerbing that remains of the characteristic nineteenth century street infrastructure.
The mature English Oak street trees along Grandview Grove are a contributory element.
The front fences at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 8 Hallcroft Place, and 84 Victoria Road are contributory elements.
Non-original alterations and additions to the houses are not significant.
How is it significant?
Victoria Road Precinct is of local historic and architectural significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
Victoria Road Precinct demonstrates the influence the opening of a railway line had on the development of suburbs in the late nineteenth century in Melbourne. The opening of Auburn Station in 1882 was instrumental in the rise in preference for and desirability of living within the precinct and directly contributed to the influx of middle class residents to the area. This is demonstrated by the differing subdivision patterns in the precinct and the predominance of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century housing stock. Along Victoria and Rathmines roads, are larger allotments with a bluestone-paved laneway providing rear access to the properties. The larger plots of land are located along the primary access routes to the railway station and other desirable amenities. The smaller lots of land are found on the ancillary roads, generally running between Rathmines and Victoria Road, providing accommodation for the brickmakers and other workers in the area, amongst the larger Villas and mansions of the precinct. (Criterion A)
Following the end of the depression in the 1890s, the ongoing subdivision and sale of land surrounding the larger villas and mansions demonstrates the continued popularity of the area, and is reflected through the construction of Edwardian and interwar dwellings in the former gardens and grounds of the larger Victorian Italianate villas as well as the complete replacement of the larger houses with several duplexes and smaller bungalows and cottages. (Criterion A)
Architecturally, the housing stock in the precinct is dominated by the Victorian Italianate style, with the large and small examples of the style displaying characteristic elements such as low-pitched hipped roofs, rendered cornices to chimneys and bracketed eaves. Most of the dwellings of this style retain the typical cast-iron detailing and slender Corinthian posts. A smaller number of houses demonstrate the principal characteristics of Edwardian Queen Anne architectural style such as high hipped roofs, the use of terracotta tiles and ridgecapping, projecting half-timbered front gables and timber posts and fretwork to the verandahs and front porches. Among the interwar buildings of the precinct, the dominant type is the single-storey red brick duplex. These almost all have projecting bays to the front facade with corbelled gables. All housing stock of this period displays the characteristic decorative brick detailing to both the gable end as well as the chimneys and main body of the house. The precinct’s bluestone pitched laneways and bluestone kerb to the junctions of streets are characteristic of nineteenth century suburban infrastructure. (Criterion D)
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Victoria Road Precinct - Physical Description 1
Description & IntegrityThe Victoria Road Precinct is bounded by Rathmines Road to the north and Lilydale Grove to the South, extending to the major arterial roads of Auburn Road to the west and Burke Road to the east. There are several smaller streets that traverse the precinct in a north-south, east-west grid. The railway line traverses the southern part of the precinct, separating Lilydale Grove from Victoria Road.The precinct is characterised by its highly intact variety of building types, ranging from modest Victorian cottages, larger Victorian and Edwardian houses, some interwar and postwar development and more recent contemporary infill development, with differing levels of quality and intactness and contribution to the overall character of the precinct. Significant and contributory development is mainly from the Victorian and Edwardian era.There is a large reserve, Victoria Reserve, with its main frontage to Victoria Road. Secondary entrances are provided off Victoria Grove and Station Street. The Victoria Reserve was reserved in the 1920s. The land was formerly clay pits associated with the brickworks.The two main streets of the precinct are Victoria Road and Rathmines Road, both of which extended from the busy thoroughfares of Auburn Road in the west to Burke Road in the east. Rathmines Road is characterised by intact groups of excellent quality Victorian and Edwardian housing that clearly demonstrate all the significant phases of development of the precinct, interspersed with some mid and late twentieth century houses and apartment buildings, with the significant Gothic style Presbyterian Church at 14 Rathmines Road, Hawthorn East, dominating the western end of the street.Victoria Road serves as a central spine for the precinct. It is an unusually wide street with median plantings and traffic calming infrastructure. Looking west there is a significant view of city buildings, and looking east the slope rises steadily to Burke Road. Development along Victoria Road is characterised by some very high quality Victorian dwellings with some interwar residences and a scattering of smaller Edwardian houses. The residential character of the streetscape is less clearly defined in proximity to the busy Auburn Road, where there is a group of single and double storey of warehouse and factory buildings (2-30 Victoria Road). At the centre of the road, on the north side, there has been apartment building construction in the second half of the twentieth century, at 101-119 Victoria Road, which is out of scale with the rest of the precinct. Therefore, it has been left out of the precinct boundaries.
The interior streets in the precinct, such as Lingwell Road and Cambridge Street, also contain similarly high quality Victorian era housing stock. These streets, with the exception of Grandview Grove, are typically composed of a mixture of Victorian Italianate cottages, larger houses and ‘villas’, some semi-detached houses and some Federation/Edwardian Queen Anne villas. The highly consistent nature of the housing stock is reflective of its construction over a relatively short period of time.The early phase of the precinct’s development was characterised by the Victorian Italianate style. The houses are generally typical examples of this architectural style. The Victorian Italianate style is characterised by low-pitched hipped roofs, rendered cornices to the chimneys, bracketed eaves, front or return verandahs with slender columns and cast-iron ornamentation. The windows are double-hung sash windows and front doors are four-panelled moulded timber doors, sometimes with sidelights.Within the Victoria Road precinct, the housing stock in this style is divided into three basic groups: double-fronted houses, which are often built of more substantial construction (often brick) and elaborate in detail; the elaborate two storey Villas and mansions on bigger allotments with larger, grand layouts and substantial garden settings; and the more modest single-fronted examples that are mainly of timber construction and are seen as freestanding and attached dwellings.There are two types of Victorian Italianate double-fronted houses in the precinct: those with flat (block-fronted) symmetrical facades, and those with an asymmetrical facade created by a hipped bay projecting to one side. The roofs of these larger houses are generally clad in slates.Reflecting the improved quality of brick in the late 1880s, several of the double fronted houses had tuckpointed polychrome face brick walls. The body colour of these houses is commonly brown hawthorn brick, with banding, window and door dressings, and diaper patterns to the eaves in cream or red brick (or both). Particularly fine examples of polychrome brickwork can be seen at 2 Temple Street, 84 and 151 Victoria Road, 8 Albert Street, 10 and 19 Cambridge Street, Hawthorn East. There are many polychrome brick houses that have been overpainted, or in a few cases, over rendered, such as 19 Stanley Avenue, 110 Rathmines Street and 49 Victoria Road, Hawthorn East.There arealso a number of timber or ashlar-block finishes to the double-fronted houses in the precinct. The quality and integrity of these dwellings varies. Particularly fine examples of this housing subtype include 134 Rathmines Street.There are also a small number of more modest, single fronted Victorian cottages and semidetached houses, with front verandahs and a single front window. Lilydale Grove has some good examples of more modest development. The roofs of these houses are generally simple hipped roofs in slate, however several appear to have had the roof replaced with corrugated iron. They share common characteristics of the Italianate style with the larger houses, including window and door types (double hung windows, four panel timber doors with side lights). The majority of these cottages are of timber construction with either weatherboard or ashlar-look boards to the facade. Others are of brick construction, some of which have been overpainted or rendered.Station Street contains a set of Victorian dwellings that are unusual within the precinct. These include the terraces at 2-4 Station Street, formerly ‘The Haven’ Homes for women (HO120, HO121, HO122 and HO123). This set of 4 single-storey dwellings are late Victorian in style, showing transitional elements such as red brick construction, timber lattice work to the front porch and steeper pitched roofs. The roofs are slate, however there are terracotta chimney pots ridge capping which is more typical of the Federation/Edwardian housing for the area.
Grandview Grove contains some of the grander houses of the precinct, some of which are individually significant. 14 Grandview Grove, Hawthorn East, is a refined Late Victorian Italianate Mansion set among expansive grounds. The main house is two-storey with a prominent three storey, parapeted tower at the centre of the front facade giving the dwelling local landmark qualities. The windows to the tower are round arches with hood moulding and protruding keystone, with a matching archway giving access to the recessed entranceway. The return verandah has decorative iron friezes, slim Corinthian columns and cast-iron brackets which are characteristic of the Italianate style. The original bluestone plinth to the boundary fence has been painted and the iron railing has been replaced.
One of the few remaining examples of a two storey Victorian house is at 16 Station Street. It is a fine example of a brick Italianate house with an unusually wide double front. It has a low hipped roof with corbelled brick chimneys, double-hung sash windows with bluestone sills that have sidelights at ground-floor level, a four-panelled door with ruby flashed-glass sidelights and highlights, timber verandah posts (missing their cast-iron capitals) and timber fretwork. The house is distinguished by its bold polychromy with red and cream brick banding and quoining across both levels of this otherwise Hawthorn brick house.
The precinct also contains a number of Federation/Edwardian era houses. These include a mixture of freestanding and semi-detached houses. Examples of the semi-detached and houses are 59 and 61 Lingwell Road, and 34 and 36 Rathmines Road, Hawthorn East. Stylistically, many display Queen Anne characteristics, including the prominent use of red brick and terracotta tiled roofs and ridge capping and timber casement windows with highlights. Verandahs have turned timer posts with timber fretwork, differing from the decorative cast-iron seen on the earlier Victorian Era houses. There are also some timber weatherboard clad Edwardian houses, some with ashlar-block front elevations.
5 Victoria Road, Hawthorn East is a fine example of a red brick Queen Anne style bungalow from the Edwardian era with a gable roof, with finial to the projecting bay and hipped roof to the main body of the house. 21 Stanley Avenue, Hawthorn East, is another good example of this style, with the terracotta roof tiles and finials still intact.The integrity of the Edwardian housing in the precinct is high, however some tiled roofs have been replaced with corrugated iron.
While the housing stock in the precinct is predominantly Victorian and Edwardian era, with some modern infill, there are also some fine examples in interwar housing scattered throughout. Hallcroft Place offers a particularly intact pocket of interwar houses, with five brick duplexes occupying the street. These have a mixture of symmetrical and asymmetrical forms, with most dwellings having hipped roofs with gables to the projecting bays, often with corbelling to the cable edges. There is decorative brickwork to the gable ends and the chimneys as well as brick banding to the body of some of the houses. All dwellings are of redbrick construction, however numbers 8, 9 and 11 are rendered. Windows are generally timber double hung sash windows however some appear to have been replaced. The front doors to some houses also appear to have been replaced.Although the integrity of the precinct is high, there have been some alterations to original details in places. Typical alterations include the overpainting of face brick and the loss of original verandah posts and cast-iron ornamentation. A small number of houses also have modified front windows, replacement of original front doors, rendering of the facebrick and introduction of tall fences, obscuring the houses and intruding on the overall streetscape of the precinct.Original low front fencing has been retained in the smaller internal streets, with high fencing along the busier Victoria and Rathmines Road. There are a limited number of second storey additions that are visible from the street. Some highly intrusive and overscaled contemporary development has occurred along parts of Victoria Road, the majority of which are outside of the precinct boundaries.Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study Volume 6: Hawthorn East
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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