Margaret Street Precinct

- the houses at 35-45, 51-59, 65-81 & 40-68 & 72 Margaret Street, the interwar shop at 63 Margaret Street, 2-18 & 7-17 Park Street and 48-54 Taylor Street, and the front fences at 51 Margaret Street and 8 Park Street.
- The houses at nos. 35, 40, 68, 76 & 78 Margaret Street, 9 Park Street and 52 Taylor Street and the terrace at 42-64 Margaret Street are Significant*.
- the overall consistency of housing form (hipped or hip and gable roofs, single storey), materials and detailing (weatherboard, imitation Ashlar or face brick, corrugated metal slate or tile roofs, verandahs with cast iron or timber frieze decoration, render or brick chimneys), detached siting (small front setbacks and narrow side setbacks) and low front fences.
- streetscape materials such as bluestone kerb and channel and bluestone laneways.

Non-original alterations and additions to the Contributory houses and the houses at 49, 70, 74 & 80-84 Margaret Street are Non-contributory.

*In Margaret Street the terrace row at nos. 42-64 has a separate citation and statement of significance.

How is it significant?
The Margaret Street and Park Street precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley

Why is it significant?
Historically, it demonstrates the housing boom in Moonee Ponds during the late Federation/Edwardian and early interwar period, while the remnant Victorian houses are associated with the first phase of suburban development in the late nineteenth century. Although altered, 51 Margaret Street is of note as one of the earliest houses in the area, dating from 1874. The predominant Federation/Edwardian housing stock interspersed with Victorian era dwellings and a single corner shop is representative of the residential areas that developed during that period. (Criteria A & D)

Aesthetically, it is an enclave of predominantly Federation/Edwardian housing with characteristic, form, materials and detailing and good visual cohesion due to the consistency of built form. The setting of the houses is complemented by traditional public realm materials such as bluestone kerb and channel and bluestone laneways. (Criterion E)

Of note within the precinct are the following houses:

- 35 Margaret Street, which has the symmetrical, twin-bay form of 9 Park Street (further emphasized by the two brick and render chimneys) but coupled with a pyramidal hipped slate roof that extends to form a timber verandah with a projecting gable portico set between the bays, and a simple rendered frieze under the eaves that have visible rafters. (Criterion D)

- 40 Margaret Street, a double-fronted Victorian Italianate dwelling, is historically significant as a house constructed during the land boom in Moonee Ponds as the residence of an owner/developer who also built a speculative terrace row on the adjacent property. While many of these houses were constructed in the area surrounding Moonee Ponds station in the late 1880s, many have now been demolished and the significance of this place is enhanced by the historic and visual connection with the adjoining terrace row. (Criterion A & D)

- 68 Margaret Street, a Victorian Italianate terrace house which is notable for the highly unusual and finely detailed arcaded loggia with a balustraded parapet. The loggia is comprised of four arched openings (three of the same size and one smaller) supported by fluted Classical style columns and brick columns with chamfered corners. There are impost moulds decorated with Acanthus leaves to the columns and the facade behind. The parapet has a frieze decorated with swags, rosettes and two types of eaves brackets, while the balustrade features urns decorated with balls and an unusual pediment, placed off centre, that comprises an arched opening containing a ball finial. The entry door to the left is recessed and there is an opening at the opposite end leading to the side yard. (Criteria D & E)

- 'Beckenham', at 76 Margaret Street, a single-storey Victorian era timber Italianate villa built in 1884, is of historical significance as an example of residential development in the Essendon before the large-scale subdivisions of the later 1880s. It is also significant as a substantially intact Victorian-era villa and an example of the Italianate style, within its original allotment. The house retains original or early building materials of slate roofing and ashlar block-fronted weatherboard. Viewed from Margaret Street, the main change to the house is a sympathetically designed one-room front extension constructed sometime after 1905 and incorporating the side verandah.

It has a generous setting and the corner allotment allows views of two principal elevations. In this respect it compares well to 55 Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds (HO322). It also demonstrates the Italianate style through its form, materials and detail including the retention of two sides of the original three-sided return verandah which is embellished with a cast iron frieze. 76 Margaret Street also demonstrates the Italianate style through its slate hipped roof enhanced by unpainted cement render chimneys, corbelled brackets to the eaves, cast iron verandah frieze, timber block front and weatherboard wall cladding, and a pair of canted bay windows. 76 Margaret Street is a more sophisticated example than 42 Myross Avenue, Ascot Vale (HO225), which has also undergone alterations to the side verandah. The sympathetic form, detail and materials employed to the extension at 76 Margaret Street are considered to not substantially diminish the ability of the house to demonstrate the Italianate style. (Criteria A & D)

- 78 Margaret Street, a Victorian house altered during the Federation/Edwardian period which is of note for the fine detailing, which includes is the 'sunray' pattern detailing to the verandah brackets that is also repeated in the bargeboards and at the side of the window hood (which also features scalloped infill boards), the arched windows that feature a 'bullseye' pattern to the upper sash and leadlight glass, and the original tessellated tile garden path, which matches that to the verandah. (Criterion E)

- 9 Park Street, which is an intact example of a transitional Italianate symmetrical villa constructed of red brick with projecting bays containing arched windows. The bullnose verandah has an ornate frieze, dentilled fascia, fluted columns with Corinthian capitals a gabled front over the entry and a tiled floor, and what appears to be the original tiled path with bluestone steps. The slate roof has terracotta ridge cresting with tall, ball finials. (Criterion D)

- 52 Taylor Street, which is a less common Federation/Edwardian Queen Anne villa with twin projecting gables on either side of a porch with an arched valance with wavy sticks and a tiled floor. The gables are bracketed and feature tall windows in a projecting bay with half timbering above and ornate rendered sills. The main roof has a street facing gable, placed off-centre, which has an arched vent flanked by triangles. Other details include the entry door with sidelights and highlights, an arched leadlight window with a label mould and bay window with rendered top in the side elevation, the tall brick chimneys with a flat bracketed cornice. (Criteria D & E)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residential Precinct