Church House
146 Yarrbat Avenue BALWYN, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is Significant?
The residence at 146 Yarrbat Avenue, Balwyn, built in 1921 on the Canterbury Park Estate for Hereward Church, is significant. The front fence is not significant.
How is it significant?
The residence at 146 Yarrbat Avenue, Balwyn, is of local architectural (representative) and associative significance to the City of Boroondara.
Why is it significant?
The residence at 146 Yarrbat Avenue, Balwyn, is a good representative and externally intact example of a substantial 1920s attic-style bungalow, constructed in keeping with the wealth and status of its owner. It is distinguished by its striking flat roofed entrance porch and shed dormer with a Japanese influence, flanked by roughcast rendered chimneys which rise above the roofline and act as a pair of columns. Its use of densely spaced rafters with reverse chamfered ends, roughcast render, face brick detailing and timber shingling is representative of the English Arts and Crafts movement in the 1920s. (Criterion D)
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Church House - Physical Description 1
This large two-storied interwar brick attic-storey bungalow is set on the south side of Yarrbat Avenue near the corner of Union Road. Set within an established garden, the house originally occupied a corner allotment with frontages to Yarrbat Avenue and Union Road. The allotment has been subdivided, losing its frontage to Union Road. Due to this, the original front entrance of the house is orientated to the east (and to the side) of the current block. The Yarrbat Avenue frontage is still wide enough so that there are good views to the two principal facades. The site gently slopes down from west to east providing for once-prominent views to the east, adding to the desirability of the location.
The house is set under a broad gable roof form, clad in terracotta tiles with a large shed dormer to the east.
Facing Union Road, the east elevation possesses the prominent architectural features of the property. A striking flat roofed entrance porch is accessed by a set of wide entry steps. Sitting above this porch, the large shed dormer is flanked by rough cast rendered chimneys which rise above the roofline and act as a pair of piers. A large timber lintel with protruding ends is supported by expressed cross beams with chamfered ends and is representative of the Japanese influence seen in the 1920s. The dormer is clad in timber shingling. The dormer windows were originally a series of nine small units and have been relatively recently replaced with two simple fixed panes to the east and top hung casements to the ends.
The north elevation, facing Yarrbat Avenue, is dominated by a visually prominent gable end with wide eave overhangs. The gable end is divided into three equal sections, the top third being shingled with a centrally placed louvered gable ventilator. The middle section is finished in roughcast render and is punctuated by a grouping of three centrally placed double-hung sash windows with divided glazing in their top panels. Two unpainted terracotta vents are positioned either side of the central window grouping. A band of pressed red bricks complete the lower third of the gable end. Positioned below the gable end is a projecting flat roofed (now enclosed) verandah. Supported by roughcast rendered piers with red brick infill panels to sill height, this element is marked by a wide eave overhung with densely-spaced rafter tails with chamfered ends. To the north-west corner of the house is a recessed porch with pressed red brickwork above being supported by a large concrete lintel.
A more traditional gable-ended dormer protrudes from the western side of the main roof form. The rear of the property is not visible from the public domain and was not inspected.
Set behind a modern aluminium picket fence on an ashlar bluestone base, the house is centrally positioned within its current property boundaries with red brick-edged gravel drives running down its east and west sides. The eastern drive leads to a garage that has been added at a later date.
146 Yarrbat Avenue is of high integrity with very few changes to original or early elements of the place. The building retains its original building form, main tiled roof form, entrance porch, face brick work, roughcast render and dominant chimneys. The integrity of the building is enhanced by the high level of intactness of these main elements, which includes details such as roughcast rendered piers with red brick infill panels, wide eave overhangs with chamfered rafter tails and shingle work.
The integrity of the building is diminished by the replacement of the first-floor windows which are sympathetic but not original.
The integrity of the place is slightly diminished by the subdivision of its original allotment size and subsequent loss of original frontage to Union Road, but it still retains a generous block of land which allows good visibility from Yarrbat Avenue.
Heritage Study and Grading
Balwyn Heritage Study Peer Review Stage 2
Author: Context
Year: 2020
Grading: Local
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