Rochester Road Precinct

Rochester Road Precinct at 5-35 Rochester Road, Canterbury is significant as a residential precinct developed primarily in the Interwar period. It comprises a number of residences in English Tudor, Spanish Mission and transitional styles in garden settings.

Rochester Road Precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.

The Rochester Road Precinct is historically significant as once part of the larger Shrublands Estate of Ernest Carter of 18 Balwyn Road (HO258). It was initially subdivided by Carter in the 1880s as part of residential intensification of the area tied to the extension of the railway line to Canterbury which made residential living more accessible in Canterbury. Rochester Road is historically significant as a subdivision from 1923 when smaller allotments were created as a result of the sale of the larger (undeveloped) allotments from the estate of John Hindson and as part of the further intensification of Canterbury following the extension of tram routes in the 1920s and 30s. (Criterion A).

Rochester Road is significant as one of a number of residential areas largely developed throughout the 1920s and 30s that demonstrate high quality and fashionable housing of the period. The precinct is characterised by substantial, predominantly brick, detached houses, many of which were designed by architects in a range of fashionable architectural styles including Spanish Mission, English Tudor interspersed with versions of Federation and large Interwar bungalows with a range of transitional features common to both styles. Rochester Road Precinct demonstrates a range of residential styles commonly associated with the 1920s and 30s and with a high degree of individual and collective integrity. This is represented to an equivalent degree in other Interwar precincts represented on the HO including those of Lower Burke Road Camberwell (HO154), Prospect Hill Road Camberwell (HO159), Leslie Street Hawthorn (HO164), Howard Street Kew (HO528) and Union Road Surrey Hills (residential area) (HO534). The Rochester Road Precinct is distinguished by its integrity and cohesion.

Rochester Road Precinct is of aesthetic significance primarily as a consistent street of Interwar houses designed and built in a relatively short period and using a similar architectural vocabulary and with high quality design. Early development of the period resulted in the transitional styles of 13, 17, 21, 25, 31 and 33 Rochester Road expressed in the use of gable roof forms clad in terracotta tile, red brick masonry with 'hit and miss' or other brickwork patterning to generous porches, the use of gabled roof forms with attics, banks of windows in combinations of box, bay and curved forms chimneys that enhance the roofscapes. A number of houses including 25 have masonry fences from the 1920s and 30s that complement the streetscape and the houses.

Rochester Road is aesthetically significant for its later development of Interwar Tudor Revival residences including 5, 11, 23, 29 and 35 that demonstrate typical features of the style including steeply pitched roofs in a picturesque composition, the use of clinker brick and render, decorative entry porches, half timbering and often decorative leadlight windows.

7 Rochester Road (HO184) is individually significant though not within the precinct, for its Prairie School design by architect Eric Nicholls and as a rare flat development in the locality of Canterbury, although now converted to a single house. 9 Rochester Road (HO185). designed by architect Arthur W Plaisted is notable as a good example of the Spanish Mission style.

The garden at Number 29 may have been designed by Edna Walling but this has not been confirmed.

The London plane trees of the street also contribute to its aesthetic quality. (Criterion E).

7 Rochester Road (HO184) is individually significant though not within the precinct, for its Prairie School design by architect Eric Nicholls and as a rare flat development in the locality of Canterbury, although now converted to a single house. 9 Rochester Road (HO185) designed by architect Arthur W Plaisted is notable as a good example of the Spanish Mission style.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House