Back to search results » | Back to search page » |
![]() ![]() |
Location73 Aberdeen Road, PRAHRAN VIC 3181 - Property No 44252 LevelIncl in HO area Significant |
|
Part of the Aberdeen Street Precinct
What is significant?
The Aberdeen Road Heritage Overlay area developed quickly from
c.1887, as part of the broad surge of development through Prahran
during the economic boom. The small group of modest workers' houses at
70-80 Aberdeen Road (north side) and 73-81 Aberdeen Road (south side),
were constructed in an unplanned manner around a narrow cul de sac
before 1992. All of the dwellings from the original development
survive and the precinct remains remarkably intact to its late
nineteenth century state.
How is it significant?
The Aberdeen Road Precinct is of aesthetic, architectural and
historical significance at a local level.
Why is it significant?
The Aberdeen Road Precinct is aesthetically significant as an unusual
surviving urban landscape. This is a product of the modest scale of
its buildings and allotments, the character of its dwellings, in
particular the absence of front setbacks, and the density and
irregularity of the planning of the narrow cul de sac. Areas of this
form and intactness are becoming increasingly rare as early dwellings
are demolished and their blocks consolidated for redevelopment. The
area contains no substantial modern interventions and its building
stock demonstrates a high level of integrity to its original form. The Aberdeen Road Precinct is architecturally significant as an
intact collection of late nineteenth century buildings. It is
comprised consistently of cottages or other modest forms of housing on
very small blocks. Some of the buildings in the group, most notably
the timber cottages to the south side of the street are of high
individual significance for their rarity and their unusual design, in
particular, their verandahs and ornamental pediments. The Aberdeen Road area is historical of significance for the manner
in which it illustrates the nature of early development in the
Municipality. Through its scale and density, the precinct demonstrates
the modest standards of accommodation and amenity enjoyed by early
residents of Prahran. The unusual siting of the individual dwellings
and their layout around a narrow cul de sac underscores the intense,
unplanned and uncontrolled nature of subdivision and development
during the economic boom of the 1880s. Areas of this type were once
common through this section of the Municipality but many were
substantially removed during the slum clearance interventions of the
1960s and 1970s.
Thematic Context:
8.5.1 'Struggletown' -working class housing in the nineteenth and
early twentieth century.
Gradings
The following gradings were assigned as part of the City of Prahran
Conservation Review in 1993. The descriptions were prepared by the
current author in 2008. North Side - 73/75 Aberdeen Road - Victorian semi-detached pair - B
Residential buildings (private)
House