'BRAESIDE'

'Braeside' at 6 Alexandra Ave, Canterbury is significant. It was constructed c1890-91 for owner Donald Mackay, a plasterer, who was most likely the designer and builder of the house.

It is a single-fronted freestanding terrace house. Walls are constructed of Hawthorn brick with red brick dressing and tuck pointing, while the simple hipped roof is covered in slates. Doors and windows have a round-arched form.

The front facade is highly intact, as are the two original chimneys. 

The rear extension of 1989, the front fence and the carport are not significant.

'Braeside' is of local aesthetic and architectural significance and rarity value to the City of Boroondara.

The large round chimneys of 'Braeside' with their Greek-inspired ornament are a unique decorative element in Canterbury and the City of Boroondara, and distinguish this Victorian house from others in the municipality. It is also distinguished by the survival of a higher than average level of embellishment, including acanthus-leaf eaves brackets, vine-leaf verandah cast iron, and the arched entry that retains an arched highlight and sidelights of ruby-flashed glass and etched glass. (Criterion E)

'Braeside' is one of a small number of Victorian houses in Boroondara that employs Greek Revival decorative details. Mass-produced cast-ironwork for verandahs in a Greek key, or meander, pattern is the most common. This same motif is also seen on at least one house as a beltcourse executed in cast cement. The use of sheet-metal acroteria at the corners of rainwater gutters survives on a few houses, but no other examples comparable to the multiple acroteria on the chimneys of 'Braeside' are known. (Criterion B)

'Braeside' is a freestanding terrace house, of the type more commonly seen in Boroondara's suburbs nearest the CBD, Hawthorn and Kew. Its massing and form are typical of the late Victorian period, with a simple hipped roof with bracketed eaves and wing walls around the verandah. It is one of a small number of such houses in Canterbury, which was characterised in the nineteenth century by freestanding villa forms designed for larger suburban blocks. (Criterion D)