Central Gardens Precinct, Hawthorn
HAWTHORN, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
Precinct Character and significance
The Central Gardens Precinct was identified by the 'Hawthorn Heritage Study' (M Gould, 1993), originally as a larger precinct that included Auburn Village (which now is a separate precinct, HO260). A half-page precinct citation is found in section 4.2.11 (page 88) of Volume 1 of that report, which addressed both parts of the proposed precinct. It is reproduced here:
Central Gardens/Auburn Village Precinct.
Representative of the growth of Hawthorn as a Victorian -Garden Suburb 1856-1900, particularly the growth of Commercial Shopping centres, transport and Workers Cottages and associated Industrial area.
The Auburn Road Shopping centre developed in direct response to the terminal railway station here. The railway and service activities required workers housing nearby and in turn these facilities generated the provision of a major formal park.
The Central Gardens/Auburn Road Precinct is significant at the State level for the exceptional, high quality, Victorian shopping precinct. At the local level it is significant for the illustration of workers housing, required to service the shopping centre and the railways and for the development of Municipal facilities at Central Park.
Common Characteristics
- Generally small attached row houses or detached repetitive row house forms.
- Shops, large attached shop-and-dwelling form in repetitive units.
- Small front garden setbacks and small/no side setbacks to residences.
- No setbacks to shops.
- Small variable allotments.
- Driveways not generally used. Concealed car access from lanes.
- Fences to residences 1.2m - 1. 4m high visually permeable.
- Residences single storey generally, two storey rarely.
- Shops, three storey or two storey.
- Roof forms secondary to wall features. Parapets or hipped roof forms generally slate or corrugated galvanised steel.
- Simple plan forms.
- Verandahs typical for residences. Posts supported verandahs to some shops now missing.
- Walls brick or render to shops. Generally weatherboard to houses.
- Timber windows.
A stand-alone statement of significance was prepared for The Central Gardens Precinct (HO146) as part of the 'Review of Heritage Overlay Precinct Citations' (Lovell Chen, 2006). It reads as follows:
The Central Gardens Precinct, Hawthorn, is an area of heritage significance for the following reasons:
- The place is characterised by modest Victorian brick and timber workers' houses (either attached or detached), most dating from the 1880s and 1890s, some of which were constructed to accommodate employees working at the newly constructed railway terminal adjacent to Auburn Road. Later housing within the area includes interesting examples of small scale and duplex Bungalow variants.
- The place includes the Central Gardens parkland, demonstrating the practice of providing municipal facilities in areas of workers' housing.
This is reflected in the current extent and valued buildings within the precinct. Central Park is the largest element of the precinct, and it is bordered to the north and east by rows of modest, mainly Victorian, dwellings. The precinct stretches east, nearly to Auburn Road, along Selbourne and Allen streets. Selbourne Street contains mainly single-fronted Victorian timber cottages as well as a few Edwardian attached dwellings. Allen Street has building only along the north side, facing the railway line to the south, which are mostly single-fronted Victorian timber cottages.
Extension character
Set between these two streets, running east from the park, is Malmsbury Street. In the 'Hawthorn Heritage Study' (Gould, 1993), a number of the house this street were given a 'C' grade (Contributory): numbers 3, 2 & 4, and 10-18. It appears that the double-fronted brick Victorian house once at No. 3 has been renumbered as No. 1.
There is a semi-detached pair of brick double-fronted California Bungalows at Nos. 2 & 4, and a row of single-fronted timber Victorian cottages at Nos. 10-18 by a single builder of the type also seen on Selbourne and Allen streets in HO146. Note that the semi-detached houses at Nos. 2 & 4 are an example of the 'duplex Bungalow variants' noted as Contributory in the 2006 precinct statement of significance.
Malmsbury Street makes a jog to the south after No. 18. As shown on the 1903 MMBW plan, this is a remnant of the junction between the original, slightly skewed course of Malmsbury Street running west from Auburn Road and the later eastern half which has a wider and more regular path.
Further to the east, where the street curves southward, there is a row of non-identical double-fronted timber houses at Nos. 20-28. Nearly all of them appear to have alterations to their verandah detail, either early in the 20th century or as recent restorations. The exception being the Edwardian double-fronted house at No. 20 (built shortly after the 1903 MMBW map). Of particularly interest is the cottage at No. 26 whose rooflines suggest that it is an early house in the area (c1860s). By 1903, it already had two distinct wings: the two front rooms below the low-pitched transverse hipped roof, and behind it a larger space set beneath two parallel hips (there is also a more recent, two-storey extension behind this). The house beside it at No. 28 has a similar low-pitch hipped section at the front, and may have been built at the same time.
On the north side of Malmsbury Street, apart from the double-fronted brick house at No. 3, there is a group of Victorian single-fronted houses at Nos. 9-15. They comprise a bichrome brick semi-detached pair with a transverse gable roof and a pair of timber cottages that were once identical (No. 9 and 11 were demolished in 2018). The lack of a party wall between the roofs of Nos. 13 & 15 indicates that they were built prior to the mid-1880s, when stricter building regulations were imposed. There is also late 20th-century development on this side of the street, at Nos. 1-1A & 5-7, which has infilled allotments that were vacant in 1903.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the housing stock in the proposed precinct extension along Malmsbury Street contains a high percentage of houses that would be Contributory to HO146 Central Gardens Precinct: 17 out of a total 23 properties, or 74 percent. These houses are potentially Contributory as they fall under the two groups set out in the 2006 statement of significance: 'modest Victorian brick and timber workers' houses (either attached or detached)' and 'interesting examples of small scale and duplex Bungalow variants'. The early houses at Nos. 26 and 28 are of particular interest, as they predate most other development in the precinct, which dates from the 1880s and 1890s.
The Non-contributory property at 30 Malmsbury Street has been included in the proposed extension as it bridges the gap between the HO146 extension and HO260 Auburn Village Precinct. If in the Heritage Overlay, future development on this site can be managed while taking into account potential impacts on the two precincts.
Postscript: after the above precinct extension assessment was completed, two Contributory-grade houses, at 9 and 11 Malmsbury Street, were demolished. For this reason, they have been downgraded to Non-contributory on the gradings map and in the gradings schedule.
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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FORMER INVERGOWRIE LODGEVictorian Heritage Register H0517
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INVERGOWRIEVictorian Heritage Register H0195
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HAWTHORN RAILWAY STATION COMPLEXVictorian Heritage Register H1566
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