Griffin Estate and Environs Precinct

Griffin Estate & Environs Precinct, comprising residential properties at 126-144 Canterbury Road, 5-51 & 2-28 Chaucer Crescent, 2-44 Dudley Parade, 4-6 Keats Street, 4-12 Marlowe Street and 9-25 Myrtle Road, Canterbury, is significant. Griffin Estate was originally subdivided in 1885, but less than half of the blocks sold at that time. The central section, along the south side of Chaucer Crescent and the east/north side of Myrtle Road and Dudley Parade, was marketed for a second time in 1904, marking the beginning of a rapid period of residential development. Original street names honoured English poets: (Geoffrey) Chaucer Crescent, (Christopher) Marlowe Street, and (Edmund) Spencer Crescent (now Myrtle Road).

To the east of Marlowe Street, the precinct extends into part of the Logan Estate, which was subdivided in 1893, then readvertised for sale around 1907. The naming convention of the Griffin Estate was extended into this new area, with the continuation of Chaucer Crescent, and Keats Street (named after Romantic poet John Keats).

There was limited development in the precinct prior to 1901, with a small cluster of houses on Chaucer Crescent. The majority of the houses were constructed during the Edwardian period, between 1906 and 1918, leaving a handful of lots to be developed during the interwar period and just after World War II.

The following properties are Significant to the precinct: 136 Canterbury Road (HO375), 138 Canterbury Road (HO376), 140 Canterbury Road, and 24 Chaucer Crescent (HO380). The following properties are Non-contributory to the precinct: 6, 7, 13, 15-15A, 16-16A, 17, 18, 27, 29 & 31 Chaucer Crescent; 12 Dudley Parade; 6 Keats Street; 4-4A, 8, 10 & 12 Marlowe Street; and 11 Myrtle Road. The remaining properties are Contributory to the precinct.

Griffin Estate & Environs Precinct is of local historical, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.

Griffin Estate & Environs Precinct is of historical significance for its demonstration of the early suburban development of Canterbury. The opening of Canterbury Railway Station in 1882 spurred the creation of suburban estates from 1885, Griffin Estate being one of the earliest. It was followed by Logan Estate in 1893, on the east side of Marlowe Street. A number of these early houses, built in the late 1880s, survive along Chaucer Crescent. Like Canterbury more generally, the major phase of development in the precinct was the Edwardian period, with the final infill of streetscapes in the interwar period and just following World War II, illustrating the pattern of development characteristic of the suburb. (Criterion A)

The Griffin Estate & Environs Precinct is of architectural significance for demonstrating the principal characteristics of early suburban housing in Canterbury. There was little nineteenth-century development in the locality, so the small group of houses built between 1888 and 1901 are significant for illustrating the characteristic features of the Italianate style. All have the low M-profile hipped roof, bracketed eaves, corniced chimney and verandah set below the eaves with cast-iron detail. All but one are of facebrick (enlivened with polychromy or cement-render detail), and have an asymmetrical facade (with a canted or gabled projecting bay).

The precinct is particularly rich in Edwardian-era architecture, built between 1903 and 1915, ranging from smaller middle-class dwellings to substantial residences. Most are Federation Queen Anne in style, and have diagonal emphasis, expressed in the verandah form or by the presence of a corner bay window or entrance. The pyramidal or gabled-hipped roofs are clad in terracotta tiles, slate or corrugated iron (this last one more common for timber houses). Features include projecting gabled bays, bay windows, hoods over windows, red brick chimneys with decorative details such as corbelling, strapwork, roughcast or terracotta chimney pots, and sash or casement windows often with decorative highlight windows. A variant of this type has a generally symmetrical facade, with two projecting bays around a central porch, often supported on Tuscan-order columns. (Criterion D)

The Griffin Estate & Environs Precinct is of aesthetic significance thanks to its picturesque streetscapes of fine suburban houses, many of them architect designed. Appreciation of the dwellings, individually and as a group, is enhanced by the curved plan of Chaucer Crescent and Myrtle Road/Dudley Parade, the elevated siting of houses on the north sides of these streets, the consistent garden setbacks, and the presence of mature street trees (alternating Plane trees and Melaleucas along Chaucer Crescent). (Criterion E)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House