Cotham Village Commercial Precinct
Glenferrie Road and Cotham Road KEW, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The Cotham Village Commercial Precinct which comprises rows of single and double-storey interwar brick shops, at 916-922 Glenferrie Road and 91-109 & 118-132 Cotham Road, Kew, is significant. All of the shops were built during the interwar period, between c.1920 and 1940. Improved transport services to this junction in 1913-15, combined with population expansion in Kew in the 1920s, were stimuli for the development of the commercial precinct at the junction of Glenferrie and Cotham roads.
The upper-storey facades and parapets of the all the shops are significant. The ground floor shopfronts of nos. 916 and 920-922 Glenferrie Road, and 109 Cotham Road (excluding windows) are significant.
The replacement shopfronts are not significant.
How is it significant?
The Cotham Village Commercial Precinct is of local historic and architectural significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
Historically, the group of shops known as Cotham Village, at the junction of Glenferrie and Cotham roads, is significant for its ability to demonstrate a major development phase in the history of Kew. The Precinct demonstrates the influence of improved transport connections in the first decades of the twentieth century, in particular with their electrification in 1913 (the Glenferrie Road tram) and 1915 (the Cotham Road tram), and the population expansion in Kew between 1921 and 1933, on the development of centres for commercial, retail and community activity. At this point in time, the streetscapes of the precinct changed, as estates and shopping strips built to the front and side boundaries, replaced large, freestanding houses in large allotments. (Criterion A)
Architecturally, the shops in the Cotham Village Commercial Precinct are significant for their ability to demonstrate typical and cohesive forms of interwar commercial/retail buildings, built to front and side boundaries, forming a continuous street wall, mostly with roofs concealed behind parapets. The visual cohesion of the precinct is enhanced by the limited architectural styles of the shops, built in groups and larger rows to the same design, the high degree of intactness of the upper-storey facades, and the intact shopfronts at 916 and 920-922 Glenferrie Road. (Criterion D)
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Cotham Village Commercial Precinct - Physical Description 1
Description & Integrity
The Cotham Village Precinct comprises three rows of single and double-storey shops, on both sides of Cotham Road and on the east side of Glenferrie Road. The Precinct is located at the junction of Cotham and Glenferrie roads, on the 109 (Cotham Road) tram route and at the Kew terminus on Glenferrie Road of the number 16 tram route.
All the shops are built to the front and side boundaries, each row forming a continuous street wall. The shops at 91-109 Cotham Road and 916-922 Glenferrie Road have their roofs hidden behind parapets, as was typical prior to WWII. The single-storey row of shops at 118-132 Cotham Road has tiled transverse gable roofs and protruding ribs of the party walls visible above the shop fronts and awning. The upper facades of the double-storey shops are of high integrity, retaining much of their original features and detailing, and have strong visual cohesion because many of them have been built as groups of varying numbers of shops.
The upper facades of both sides of the shopping strip are of high integrity, retaining much of their original features and detailing, and have strong visual cohesion because of the groupings of shops built to the same design. Three of the four shopfronts of the Glenferrie Road row of shops are largely intact, whereas the other shopfronts have been altered (the windows at no. 109 Cotham Road) or replaced.
Nos. 916-922 Glenferrie Road: The row of four shops at 916-922 Glenferrie Road consists of early 1920s double storey, brick shops with original shopfronts to three of the four shops and highly intact upper storey facades. The shops have been built as a symmetrical group; the shops at the ends of the row (nos. 916 and 922) are a pair and bookend the two identical centre shops (nos. 918-920). The side walls of the shops are red face brick. The upper storey facades are smooth rendered, each painted in a different pale white-cream colour. The plain wall surfaces feature restrained detailing but of substantial proportions. The flat-topped parapet is topped by flat rendered capping. The parapets to nos. 918 and 922 are surmounted by a pair of squat piers with horizontal banding above the side walls. The pilasters beneath the piers have a stylised 'tulip' motif. The detailing on the two end shops is predominantly vertical in expression, whereas on the two centre shop the detailing is horizontal in expression. A wide arched opening supported on squat columns and solid masonry balustrade frame the recessed upper-storey verandahs to nos. 918 and 922. The upper storey facades of the two centre shops have glazed infill to the verandah openings.
The shopfronts at nos. 916, 920, and 922 retain original splayed ingos and tiled floors, tiled stall boards (overpainted at no. 922), original window joinery, and original leadlight upper windows (at no. 922). The pressed metal ceiling linings to the awnings of nos. 916 and 918 are pressed metal and probably original. The shopfront at no. 918 has been replaced.
91-95 Cotham Road: The first shops on this side of Cotham Road were shops at 91-95 Cotham Road (in 1925 at no. 85 Cotham Road), in c.1920-25. The three interwar brick shops are built to the same design, with rendered facade, pair of timber sash windows with rendered sill and band of horizontal moulding above. The windows at nos. 93-95 appear to be original. At no. 91, the small-paned upper sashes have been replaced. Horizontal moulding defines the base and top of the flat capped parapet. Vertical expression is provided by the flat capped pilasters which define the dividing walls of each shop. The shop fronts have been replaced.
Nos. 97 and 101 Cotham Road: The double-storey interwar brick shops at 97 and 101 Cotham Road are built to the same interwar design which combines elements of the Art Deco and Moderne architectural styles. The upper story facades are face brick, partially overpainted, each with a pair of timber sash windows with horizontal bars. The horizontality of the window frames is echoed in the parapet decoration above, which features horizontal bands of expressed cream brick, dissected by a vertical brick fin, also cream-coloured brick. The parapet is topped by a single course of cream-coloured bricks. The ground floor shopfronts have been replaced.
No. 99 Cotham Road: The two double-storey shops at 97 and 101 Cotham Road are separated by a single storey brick shop with roof concealed behind a parapet. It was built as, and still serves as a dental surgery (S&McD 1938, 1940). Its front steel windows have been replaced and it has been graded Non-contributory.
Nos. 103-107 Cotham Road: Built by 1940, the row of three double-storey brick shops at nos. 103-107 are built to the same Moderne design. Characteristic features of the interwar Moderne style include the horizontal expression of the upper-storey facade, created by the continuous cantilever awning that visually links the three windows, the wide steel-framed windows with plate glass and horizontal bars to the flanking casement windows, and the smooth rendered facade free of ornamentation. The ground floor shop fronts have been replaced.
No. 109 Cotham Road is a double-storey clinker brick building built in 1938 in the interwar Moderne architectural style, initially as the Bank of Australasia with offices at the rear. Situated on the corner of Cotham Road and Ridgeway Avenue the building is designed to address the corner. Hallmarks of the Moderne style are expressed in the streamlined curve of the building's corner, the curved cantilever awning over the corner doorway, and the curved second-storey window above the cantilever awning. The streamlined Moderne aesthetic is further expressed through the horizontal bars of the upper-storey steel window frames, and the contrasting painted cement bands. The horizontality is broken by flat rendered, vertical features, striped in an echo of classical columns that frame the upper-storey facades (facing Cotham Road and Ridgeway Avenue), then turn 90 degrees across the parapet top to meet the simple geometric brick pediment. The face brick walls of the ground floor shopfront are original but the ground floor windows on both the Cotham Road and Ridgeway Avenue elevations are not original.
Nos. 118-132 Cotham Road, consists of a row of single-storey brick shops with terracotta tile transverse gable and hip roofs built in c.1925. The tiles at no. 132 have been replaced with corrugated iron. The roof is articulated by the roughcast rendered ribs protruding above the party walls of alternate shops. The ends of the row wrap around their respective corners, with a splayed corner and decorative, roughcast rendered masonry parapet with gabled pediment above. A small roughcast rendered parapet projects above the awnings above each party wall. The shopfront at no. 132 retains copper framed window joinery. The other shopfronts have been replaced.
Heritage Study and Grading
Boroondara - Municipal-Wide Heritage Gap Study Volume 4: Kew
Author: Context
Year: 2018
Grading: Local
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XAVIER COLLEGEVictorian Heritage Register H0893
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SPRINGTHORPE MEMORIAL, BOROONDARA GENERAL CEMETERYVictorian Heritage Register H0522
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POLICE STATION AND FORMER COURT HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0944
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