House
65 Charles Street ASCOT VALE, MOONEE VALLEY 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?
The Edwardian Queen Anne house with Italianate and Art Nouveau references at 65 Charles Street, Ascot Vale, is significant. It was built in 1906-07 for owner-occupier Andrew Murdoch.
Significant elements include the:
- Original and built form, slate roof with terracotta ridge cappings and finials, brick chimneys;
- block timber cladding, return verandah, original fenestrations, window hoods, and
- gable end details of simple timber strapping over pressed metal, eaves brackets and frieze panels, verandah timber posts and fretwork, and original window and door joinery.
The rear extension is not significant.
How is it significant?
65 Charles Street, Ascot Vale, is of local architectural (representative) significance to the City of Moonee Valley.
Why is it significant?
65 Charles Street, Ascot Vale, is a highly intact example of the Queen Anne-Italianate fusion that was common in the first years of the twentieth century and illustrates the transition from one dominant style to another. As is typical for such houses, it retains the M-hipped roof with a long transverse ridge, slate roofing, cornices chimneys, and bullnose verandah set below brackets eaves from the Italianate style. Key characteristics of the Queen Anne style are seen in the plan with projecting gabled bays to two elevations with a return verandah in between to create a diagonal axis of symmetry, the half-timbering treatment to the gables, and the terracotta roof ridge capping and finials. The verandah treatment is unusual and distinctive, combining Italianate Corinthian columns with sinuous solid timber fretwork which displays the influence of Art Nouveau on the Queen Anne style. (Criterion D)
-
-
House - Physical Description 1
65 Charles Street, Ascot Vale, is a double-fronted timber Queen Anne villa built in 1906-1907. Positioned on the south-east side of Charles Street between Pynor Avenue and Progress Street, the house is next door to a commercial premise on its south-west side and diagonally opposite All Saints Anglican Church. The land falls south to north and west to east giving the house an elevated aspect to the street.
Constructed in timber with a hipped slate roof, the ridgelines are capped in terracotta with decorative ram's head finials. Asymmetrical in presentation, the house features a return verandah that stops with square projecting gabled bays on the front and side. Displaying an eclectic mix of decorative elements, the house is representative of transitional Australian domestic architecture of the Federation era which still retains a strong influence from the Victorian Italianate style. Most immediately noticeable is the roof form, which is a low M-hipped roof with long transverse ridge, typical of the Italianate style.
The north-west elevation, facing the street, is clad with timber boards simulating ashlar stonework. A projecting room is located at the south-west corner and sits under a gable roof. The gable end is finished with a treatment of simple half-timbering over pressed metal. A window hood supported by simple timber brackets protects a pair of timber-framed double-hung windows. The hood has a slate roof. Each window is framed by a timber architrave with small timber support brackets.
Accessed by a small flight of non-original concrete steps, the bullnose return verandah is hipped at its corner and the roof has recently been renewed. It is supported by slender Corinthian columns, typical of the Italianate style. Unusually, they are combined, not with a cast-iron frieze, but with timber fretwork comprising hooked fretted corner brackets seamlessly joined with elongated timber arches providing a touch of Art Nouveau styling to the facade. This unusual pairing of Victorian elements with Queen Anne details is distinctive and indicative of the transition between Victorian and Federation architecture occurring at the time. Under the verandah an elaborate door case with sidelights and fanlight, surrounds a timber-moulded front door with glazed top panel. A pair of tall, slender, timber-framed double-hung windows have dropped sill heights that almost meet the timber verandah floor. A single door with fanlight is located at the verandah's return end on the east. Paired timber brackets and frieze panels sit below the eaves line above the verandah, in keeping with the Italianate style.
Whilst the north-east elevation faces the side boundary of the property it is an important part of the building's overall composition. Clad with block-fronted weatherboards that finish against the projecting square bay, beyond the bay the cladding continues in square-edged boards. A pair of windows and hood is set into this side projecting bay and is identical to the pair of the street facing elevation, as is the treatment of the gable end. The south-west elevation is clad in square-edged weatherboards with simple timber-framed windows.
Two Italianate chimneys rise from the ridgelines of the roof. Constructed in red face brickwork, the chimneys are topped with deeply moulded caps that are indicative of Italianate elements more commonly used in the nineteenth century. The north-east chimney has a single terracotta chimney pot whilst the south-west has a pair.
The house sits behind a capped timber picket fence, that is not original, in an established garden. A flat-roofed single-storey rear extension is largely not visible from the public domain. A double garage is accessed off a rear bluestone pitched lane.
65 Charles Street, Ascot Vale, is of high integrity with very few changes visible to original or early elements of the place. The building retains its original and early built form, slate roof with terracotta ridge cappings and finials, block timber cladding, original fenestrations, return verandah, window hoods, and brick chimneys. The integrity of the building is enhanced by the high level of intactness of these main elements, which include: gable end details of simple timber strapping over pressed metal, eaves brackets and frieze panels, return verandah with timber posts and fretwork, and original window and door joinery.
The integrity of the building is slightly diminished by an extension at the rear of the property, but it is not visible from the street.
The integrity of the place as a whole is enhanced by mature landscaping.
Heritage Study and Grading
Moonee Valley - Moonee Valley 2017 Heritage Study
Author: Context
Year: 2019
Grading: Local
-
-
-
-
-
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SHOWGROUNDSVictorian Heritage Register H1329
-
JACK JONES' SLIPWAY AND BOATBUILDING YARDVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
HOUSEMoonee Valley City
-
"1890"Yarra City
-
"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
-
"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
-
'Aqua Profonda' sign wall sign, Fitzroy Swimming PoolYarra City H1687
-
'DRIFFVILLE'Boroondara City
-
1) WEATHERBOARD FARM HOUSE AND 2) THE OUTBUILDINGSNillumbik Shire
-
-