HARLEY ESTATE & ENVIRONS PRECINCT

The Harley Estate & Environs Precinct is significant. It comprises 2-8 Bonville Court; 29-77 & 28-92 Cooloongatta Road; 78-92 Fordham Avenue; and 1-7 & 2-4 Gowar Avenue, Camberwell.

Most of Cooloongatta Road was part of the Camberwell Estate, on land released in 1921 and 1924. Houses in this part of the precinct were built between 1925 and 1940. At the south end of the precinct is the Harley Estate, which was created in 1935 by the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society to assist employees of the society to obtain their own homes, and then opened to the general public. Homes were architect-designed in the English cottage style to recreate an English village feel, and were constructed 1935-40.

The houses at 75 Cooloongatta Road and 78 Fordham Avenue are Significant to the precinct. Non-contributory houses at 29, 34, 36, 37, 41, 42, 48, 54, 60, 62, 68 & 82 Cooloongatta Road and 7 Gowar Avenue. The remaining properties, including the Methodist Church at 58 Cooloongatta Road, are Contributory. Original front fences and garages are contributory.

How is it significant?

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

Why is it significant?

The precinct as a whole is historically significant for exemplifying the important role of public transport in the suburban development of Camberwell prior to widespread car ownership by its proximity to Hartwell Station which was mentioned in advertisements for the Camberwell Estate subdivisions. (Criterion A)

Harley Estate is significant as an example of an unusual interwar employer-sponsored housing development in Boroondara. While there are many examples from the 19th century through to the 1950s of manufacturing businesses, such as brickworks and factories, building workers housing in Hawthorn, Canterbury and many other Melbourne suburbs, these were usually located so that employees could live near their place of work. In the Harley Estate, created for CBD office workers, we see the acceptance of the ideal of the suburban lifestyle which involved a daily train commute by fathers. (Criterion A)

Architecturally, the houses in the precinct are fine representative examples of styles popular during the 1920s and the 1930s, including California Bungalow, Art Deco, Tudor Revival/Old English, and Georgian Revival. The houses generally exhibit a high level of intactness, including the retention of many original front fences. (Criterion D)

The Harley Estate is of aesthetic significance for its high-quality architecture and visual unity. The estate was planned to resemble an English village, full of 'English cottage style' dwellings, which were the work of the most prominent designer of this style, Robert Bell Hamilton. These designs are distinguished by their quality design and details, including many that are repeated to indicate their inter-relatedness, including cut-outs of a pine tree or a simple flower seen on timber shutters and the gables of timber houses, gable vents created of brick headers set on an angle for clinker brick houses, and massive brick chimneys with corbelling at the top. The Significant dwellings at 75 Cooloongatta Road and 78 Fordham Avenue are fine two-storey examples of Georgian and half-timbered Old English dwellings, respectively. They are distinguished by their picturesque massing and distinctive details. As a whole, its serves as a showcase of the English-inspired domestic architecture for which Robert Bell Hamilton is so renowned. (Criteria E & H)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House