War Service Homes Estate
17-25 and 18-28 ARTHUR STREET, 27-37 BRUCE STREET, 1-9 and 8-16 HERBERT STREET, and 76-84A ST GEORGE'S ROAD, PRESTON, DAREBIN CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The War Service Homes Commission precinct comprises houses in Arthur, Bruce, and Herbert streets and St Georges Road, Preston that were constructed from 1920-24 by the War Service Homes Commission for returned servicemen in accordance with the War Service Homes Act 1918. The houses are modest detached brick or brick and render bungalows with Arts & Crafts influences in garden settings. Apparently designed by the Commission, they are of distinctive and consistent design and the precinct has a high degree of integrity with most of the original houses still extant and many that remain externally intact.
The houses constructed by the War Service Homes Commission from c.1919-c.1924, and any associated early (pre-WWII) outbuildings or garages and garden elements contribute to the significance of the precinct.
Non-original alterations or additions are not significant.
How is it significant?
The War Service Homes Commission precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to Darebin City.
Historically, the War Service Homes Commission precinct is significant as one of the first estates in Darebin City to be developed by the War Service Homes Commission and is among the earliest in Australia. It provides evidence of the important role that the Commission played in meeting the demand for housing in the post First World War period and is notable as one of the largest estates to be designed and constructed by the Commission. It also provides evidence of the residential development associated with the post First World War boom when the population of Preston trebled within a decade. It illustrates the significant development that led to Preston being proclaimed a city by 1927. (AHC criteria A.4, D.2, H.1)
Aesthetically, the War Service Homes Commission precinct is significant for the distinctive architectural character created by the consistency of the Arts & Crafts influenced bungalows constructed by the Commission. The high level of integrity of most of the houses and the limited number of intrusions enhances the aesthetic values of the precinct and make it an exemplar of the Commission's estate planning practices at the time. (AHC criterion F.1)
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War Service Homes Estate - Physical Description 1
This is an interwar residential precinct comprising detached single storey brick bungalows. In Arthur Street, the War Services homes flank both sides of the northern end of the street, creating a consistency in architectural character, absent in the southern portion of the street, which is an eclectic mix of housing ranging from Victorian through to buildings constructed in the decades immediately after World War II. In Bruce Street, west of the railway line, the War Services homes are built along the south side of the street. In St Georges Road, War Services Homes have been built on the east side, immediately south of Bruce Street. East of the railway line, in Herbert Street, there are War Service Homes flanking both sides of part of the street.
The War Service Homes are detached bungalows, modest in scale and character, built with similar materials and architectural elements displaying Arts & Crafts influences, but varying in form and composition. Common design elements include:
. Hip and gable clay tile roofs. The deep eaves have visible rafters and are often supported by timber brackets.
. Timber double hung sash windows with multi-paned uppers, which are often grouped in pairs or set within projecting bays
. Simple brick chimneys with terracotta pots
. Entry porches set under the main roof line with arched or square openings.
The houses are set back from the street within mature gardens in accordance with garden suburb principles. There are some early plantings such as the privet hedge across the frontage of no.1 Herbert Street. Fences, whilst not original, are uniformly low throughout the precinct and enhance the garden suburb character.
The level of intactness of the houses varies throughout the precinct, with some, such as 19 and 21 Arthur Street, being relatively intact examples. The house at 1 Herbert Street (Figure 3) is also of note, as a modest composition, rectangular in plan with a large roof overhang, and roughcast rendered walls with splayed corners. It is externally intact and appears to be a unique design within the precinct (although the now altered house at no.9 Herbert Street may have once been identical or very similar).
Some houses have been altered unsympathetically, such as 35 Bruce Street, which has had its windows replaced with aluminium frame windows, and 31 Bruce Street which is intact at its front, but has had a large second storey addition built towards its rear, which visually dominates the original building and is conspicuous in the precinct due to its corner siting. Other houses, such as 17 Arthur Street, have had minor alterations made to them, which are reversible and/or retain the integrity of the building. Some have had garages erected to their sides in later decades.
Heritage Study and Grading
Darebin - Darebin Heritage Study
Author: Context P/L
Year: 2011
Grading: Local
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