Smith's Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct

Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct, comprising 1-47 & 2A-68 Auburn Parade, 1-29 Burwood Avenue, 720-790 & 815-825 Burwood Road, 2-10 Carrington Avenue, 1-19 & 2-20 Gillman Street, and 1 & 2 Newport Crescent, Hawthorn East, is significant. The precinct boundaries correspond largely with a 1880s subdivision also known as the Burwood Reserve Estate. The majority of the houses were built in the late Victorian period (late 1880s-90s), with further infill in the Edwardian and interwar eras.

 

The Victorian house at 23-25 Burwood Avenue is significant. The following properties are non-contributory: 2A & 18 Auburn Parade, 1-5 & 29 Burwood Avenue, and 732-734, 758, 772 & 821 Burwood Road. The remaining properties are contributory, as are the bluestone pitched laneways running behind Auburn Parade to the north and south, and behind Gillman Street to the east and west.

Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct is of local historic, architectural and aesthetic significance to the City of Boroondara.

Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Precinct is of historic significance for illustrating the influence of the opening of the Auburn and Camberwell railway stations in 1882, both on its topography and in the burst of development that followed it in the late nineteenth century. Smith’s Paddock was subdivided into 125 lots in 1886 to create the precinct. The desirability in being as close as possible to a train station during the pre-automotive era is illustrated by the differing subdivision patterns in the two halves of the precinct. Near the station are large villa allotments with a wide rear laneway (Carrington Avenue) on elevated land, while to the west of the line are narrower allotments with standard rear laneways. While separated by the railway cutting, there are open vistas between the two halves, as viewed from Burwood Avenue and Newport Crescent/Auburn Parade. (Criterion A)

 

Architecturally, the housing stock in the precinct is dominated by the Victorian Italianate style, with the large and small examples of the style displaying characteristic elements such as low-pitched hipped roofs, chimneys with a rendered cornice, bracketed eaves (many with raised panels between them), front or return verandahs with slender posts or columns and cast-iron ornament, double-hung sash windows often with sidelights, and four-panelled front doors with raised cricket-bat mouldings. There is a smaller group of Federation/Edwardian Queen Anne houses, which display characteristic features such as high hipped roofs (sometimes with a gablet at the top), the use of terracotta ridgecapping and tiles, projecting front gables with half-timbering in them, and timber verandah fretwork. Among the interwar houses of the precinct, the California Bungalow style is well represented, with dominant gabled roof forms and front porches, the use of timber shingles in gables, and heavy masonry porch piers. There are also a number of Old English houses from the 1930s, with characteristics vergeless and corbelled front gables, and the use of mottled clinker bricks often with textured render. The precinct’s bluestone pitched laneways and bluestone kerb and channel to the streets are characteristic of nineteenth century suburban infrastructure. The wide channel to Newport Crescent and the southern part of Auburn Crescent is unusual. (Criterion D)

 

‘Dartford’ at 23-25 Burwood Avenue, Hawthorn East, is of aesthetic significance for its elaborate decoration, applied to a substantial but standard Italianate villa form. Details of note include the Venetian Gothic cream brick arches above the front windows, the terracotta acanthus-leaf capitals between the windows, and the cast (possibly terracotta) classical cornice below the eaves. It is also of associative (historic) significance for its connection with the Fritsch family. It was built in 1898 as the home of Francis V Fritsch and family, and designed by his brother, Augustus A Fritsch. The two were sons of Augustus Fritsch, who had founded the nearby Hawthorn Brick Company with the Holzer brothers. Son, architect Augustus A Fritsch, was active designing many houses in the Hawthorn and Camberwell area during the late Victorian period, and the commission for a Roman Catholic presbytery in Malvern in 1894 marked the start of his long involvement with the Catholic Church. Notable works include parish churches at Hawthorn, Malvern, Elwood, Middle Park and Camberwell, St Patrick’s College at Sale and Assumption College at Kilmore. He designed many presbyteries, schools and convents throughout Victoria and elsewhere, including St Joseph’s and St John’s schools in Hawthorn. (Criteria E & H)