Surrey Hills Redvers - Kennealy Street Residential Precinct
Redvers Street and Kennealy Stree SURREY HILLS, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant
Redvers Street Residential Precinct is concentrated on RedversandKennealy streets, Surrey Hills. The precinct, which is predominantly of 'contributory' heritage properties dating from the 1890s to1940,comprises two parallel streets running south off Canterbury Road. The two streets, unusually, strongly reflect the two main periods of residential development in the precinct, albeit with intervening bursts of development. This occurred from the 1890s (Redvers Street, after the street was created in 1889) and from the 1920s (Kennealy Street, after the street was created in 1914). Redvers Street contains houses from the late Victorian and Federation eras, mostly constructed of timber. The street also contains some interwar dwellings, including Californian bungalows, but the majority of 1920s and 1930s houses are located in Kennealy Street, where they are predominantly of brick construction.
How is it significant?
Why is it Significant
Redvers Street Residential Precinct is of historical significance, as along-standing residential area in Boroondara which demonstrates aspects of the growth and consolidation of Surrey Hills in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The precinct was substantially developed in two main stages from the late 1880s and from the mid-1920s,with the subdivision that created Redvers Street under taken in early1889. Kennealy Street is named for the Kennealy family, who resided on a large property, with dairy, fronting Canterbury Road from c.1891.This property was subdivided in 1914, creating Kennealy Street, although development largely stalled until the 1920s. The stop-startnature of development in the precinct is reflective of a common pat tern in Boroondara, as elsewhere in Melbourne: initial development of the late nineteenth century, in this case spurred on by the arrival of the Surrey Hills railway station in 1883; this halted with the1890sdepression; development picked up again in the 1900s only to bear rested once more by World War One; then a postwar burst which also stuttered with the depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s.Unusually, the two parallel streets of the precinct strongly reflect the two main periods of residential development.
The precinct is also of aesthetic/ architectural significance, and has a comparatively high level of intactness with contributory dwellings dating from the 1890s through to 1940. Redvers Street is not able for its late Victorian and Federation houses, mostly of timber construction, including several Victorian Italianate houses. The latter have bracketed and hipped roofing, some with block front detailing to resemble stone,and corniced chimneys. Federation dwellings in the precinct are marked by hipped roofs played off against a single projecting gable, or two projecting gables set at right angles, or more commonly simple L-shaped plans with a single projecting gable. The interwar period of the 1920sand 1930s is also represented in Redvers Street, as it is in Kennealy Street, where brick houses are more common, including use of red facebrick, decorative tapes try and clinker brickfinishes, and rendered brick. Bungalow houses in the precinct, particularly of the 1920s, are generally Bungalow variants, influenced by contemporary American Bungalows. Wider housing blocks to Kennealy Streethave also enabled the construction of several triple-fronted residencesin popular interwar Tudor Revival and Spanish Mission styles.
Grading and Recommendations
Recommended for inclusion in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Boroondara Planning Scheme as a precinct.
For a full list of individual place gradings within the precinct, please refer to the attached PDF citation, or individual child records attached to this parent record.
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Surrey Hills Redvers - Kennealy Street Residential Precinct - Physical Description 1
[Note: unless otherwise indicated, all properties identified below are of 'contributory' heritage value. Images of select 'contributory' properties are included above. The precinct does not contain any identified 'significant' properties.]
Precinct boundaryTo the north, the precinct boundary commences at the back fences of adjoining properties facing Canterbury Road, and extending to the east and west to the shared rear fences of properties facing Middlesex and Highfield roads respectively. To the south the boundary is broadly that of the rear fences of properties facing Leura Street. The precinct comprises a total of 49 properties.
Overview
The Redvers Street Residential Precinct comprises two parallel streets, both running northsouth from Canterbury Road. Redvers Street terminates in a T-intersection, originally William Street, later renumbered and combined with Redvers Street after it became apparent that William Street would not be extended through to interconnect with either Kennealy Street to the east or Highfield Road to the west. A similar scenario is reflected in the alignment of Kennealy Street, which terminates one allotment short of connecting with Albion Street. This is indicative of the piecemeal nature of land subdivision.
While both streets have established street plantings, the variety in median strip plantings is a characteristic of the streets south of Canterbury Road, with a number of different tree species noted including London Plane, Prunus (flowering Cherries), Eucalypts, Elms and Moreton Bay Figs.
Redvers Street has kerbs and gutters formed of bluestone pitchers, while Kennealy Street, developed thirty years later, has concrete kerbing and gutters. To the east end of Redvers Street there is a broad grassed and treed reserve to the east end of the street, with an interconnecting pedestrian pathway to Kennealy Street.
There are two main periods of residential construction evident in the precinct, albeit with intervening bursts of development, with the two periods discernible due to the twenty-tothirty year break between the initial development in Redvers Street, and the opening up of lots in Kennealy Street.
Redvers Street contains houses from both the late Victorian and Federation eras, including the initial development which followed its subdivision in 1889, followed by a stagnant period where the number of houses in the street remained unchanged for nearly ten years, until the early years of the twentieth century. Almost without exception, these early residences were constructed of timber, sometimes with block-fronting, or with 'notched' boards, cut to emulate shingling. 'Bona Vista', 32 Redvers Street c.1891 (Figure 132) is one of the earliest houses constructed, along with 'Nene', 19 Redvers Street, c. 1892; both have block-fronted facades, with 'Bona Vista' featuring unusual moulded timber quoining to the corners, rendered in wood. There is a sole brick house dating from the first development period - 17 Redvers Street, a double-fronted brick Victorian villa which has lost its verandah ('contributory'). There is also a Victorian timber house (c.1890) at 20 Redvers Street that was moved from an unknown location in 1949 ('non-contributory') and a post-war brick residence, which may be a timber house with later brick cladding - 18 Redvers Street, also 'non-contributory'. Otherwise the housing to Redvers Street is entirely constructed of timber, also with few exceptions to the predominantly corrugated iron roofing.
'Hestia' 22 Redvers Street c. 1905 and 'Douris Beg', 11 Redvers Street c.1910, home of the Kennealy family, are Federation era villas. 'Douris Beg' retains its angled verandah andexpressed corner bay window with gablet, while 'Hestia' has been part-enclosed by a recent car-port addition. The side wall has also been clad in lightweight panel brick, but these alterations are not considered to detract from what is a generally intact Federation villa with a fine terracotta-tiled roof and elongated unpainted roughcast-rendered chimneys (Figure 133, Figure 134).The other period represented is the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s, which includes development up into the early years of World War Two. Redvers Street includes several houses from this period of construction, notably to the upper reaches of the street, including those to the former William Street. Here they generally take the form of Californian bungalows, with the exception of the late interwar house at 13 Redvers Street - a wellmaintained double-fronted villa with central porch supported on Tuscan columns and a brick plinth (Figure 135, Figure 136).
The section of Kennealy Street incorporated into the precinct also comprises houses from the interwar period, with the exception of a single 2003 residence at 9 Kennealy Street ('noncontributory'). Here, the reverse of the building pattern to Redvers Street holds: more houses are constructed of brick than of wood, adopting red face brick, decorative tapestry and clinker brick finishes, or rendered brick. Roofs are primarily clad in terracotta tile, rather than corrugated metal. Housing blocks to Kennealy Street are generously wide, and this has enabled the construction of some triple-fronted residences in a variety of popular interwar styles, including the Tudor Revival style. Nos 8 and 17 Kennealy Street are good examples, executed in clinker brick and with prominent chimney detailing and gabled arch-headed porches. Both were constructed in c. 1938, and are likely to be the work of the same builder (Figure 137, Figure 138). Similarly, there are two Spanish Mission styled villas at 6 and 21 Kennealy Street, both constructed in c. 1936 and featuring hipped tiled roofs and a central brick porch with arches supported on 'barley twist' colonnettes. Again, these are likely to be the work of the same builder (Figure 139, Figure 140).
Californian bungalow houses are the predominant building form in Kennealy Street. Nos 4, 10, 15 and 18 Kennealy Street are examples rendered in brick, with others constructed of timber, being nos 2, 5, 7, 13, and 19 Kennealy Street (Figure 141, Figure 142).
Kennealy Street also includes an example of semi-detached interwar brick villas - 14 and 14A Kennealy Street, constructed c. 1938 - a building type more common in streets further to the east including Durham Road and Thames Street.
A number of the houses on Kennealy Street retain their original front fence (and some gates). These include woven wire fences to nos 19 and 21, dwarf face brick fences at nos 8 and 17. The roughcast rendered fence to 6 Kennealy Street is of particular note, with its pointed-arch piers (the timber picket infill is a reversible alteration). The house at 2 Kennealy Street is complemented by a mature Canary Island Palm in its front yard.
Generally speaking, alterations to properties of 'contributory' heritage value have included first floor additions and rear extensions. Generally, the former are sympathetic and of a scale which is not considered to have had an unacceptable impact. For the latter, rear additions are generally concealed or substantially concealed from view. Where house blocks are larger, some additions to the sides have also occurred; nos 4, 10 and 28 Redvers Street, are examples. Large open-sided car-ports are also a characteristic of the precinct, often adopting detailing of the residence in each case, including gable roof forms; examples include the houses at 26 to 34 Redvers Street and 5 and 15 Kennealy Street, among others.
Gradings
Properties in the Redvers Street Residential Precinct are of 'contributory' heritage value, with several identified as being 'non-contributory' (see the Schedule of Properties which accompanies this citation).
Properties of 'contributory' heritage value are defined Boroondara's Clause 22.05 'Heritage Policy' as:
'Contributory' heritage places are places that contribute to the cultural heritage significance of a precinct. They are not considered to be individually important places of State, municipal or local cultural heritage significance, however when combined with other 'significant' and/or 'contributory' heritage places, they play an integral role in demonstrating the cultural heritage significance of a precinct.
In this precinct, the 'contributory' value of the properties generally derives from the 'contribution' they make to the overall heritage character of the precinct. This generally includes retaining the fabric, form, detailing and largely original external appearance (as visible from the principal streetscape) of buildings constructed in the two major phases of development which distinguish the precinct. This includes the Federation-style dwellings of the 1910-1915 period (approximate), and interwar houses of the 1920s and 1930s. There are also some earlier contributory buildings outside these date ranges, including several late Victorian houses of the 1890s and early 1900s in Redvers Street. At the other end of the date range, in the late interwar period, there are 'contributory' buildings in Kennealy Street which date from the late 1930s, and one of 1940 in Redvers Street.
'Non-contributory' buildings in the precinct include more recent infill development (including some buildings which adopt a faux or mock heritage form); and buildings from the two major phases of development that have undergone substantial alterations, including large and prominent additions which dominate the front portions of dwellings. Unusually, the 'noncontributory' property at 20 Redvers Streetis a late-Victorian block-fronted timber cottage, of a style evident in streets further to the east including 24 Norfolk Road and 25 Suffolk Road, which was moved to Redvers Street in 1949.294
Again, as per Clause 22.05, 'non-contributory' properties are defined as:
'Non-contributory' places are places within a heritage precinct that have no identifiable cultural heritage significance. They are included within a Heritage Overlay because any development of the place may impact on the cultural heritage significance of the precinct or adjacent 'significant' or 'contributory' heritage places.Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Surrey Hills and Canterbury Hill Estate Heritage Study
Author: Lovell Chen
Year: 2011
Grading: Local
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CANTERBURY MANSIONSVictorian Heritage Register H0869
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EYRE COURTVictorian Heritage Register H0817
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CULLYMONTVictorian Heritage Register H0811
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