5 Cambridge Street, ARMADALE

The four allotments bounded by Dandenong Road, Kooyong Road, High Street and Orrong Road were sold at the Crown land Sale of 15 May 1850. Allotment 66 (part of which now forms Cambridge Street) was purchased by James Jackson. This allotment was re-subdivided several times starting with a sale on 15 October 1881 with allotments becoming successively smaller until the tight layout of Cambridge Street was established. The thirty-two allotments were all developed simultaneously by the erection in 1887-88 of identical single-storey detached timber cottages. The street, known at this stage as Oxford Street, thus achieved a degree of architectural unity not found elsewhere in the municipality. Oxford Street was renamed Cambridge Street in 1892, presumably to avoid confusion with Oxford Street, South Yarra.

The cottages were all designed with low pitched gable roofs having a strongly expressed gable end, circular louvred vents and uniform detailing. Today the street is significant for the repetition of such details as the gables, circular vents, chimneys and building forms. Restoration of uniform timber picket fences and colour schemes would dramatically enhance this significance.

(Prahran Conservation Study 1998)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House