Longford Estate and Environs Precinct

Longford Estate and Environs Precinct, comprising 313-343 Auburn Road, Hawthorn; 499-529 Tooronga Road, 2-44 and 1-45 Currajong Road, 1A-41 and 2-44 Invermay Grove, and 1-39 and 2-50 Harts Parade, Hawthorn East, is significant.

 

The following properties are non-contributory to the precinct: 317, 319, 323, 325 and 333 Auburn Road; 10, 12, 13, 15, 19, 32, 33, 35 and 45 Currajong Road; 1A-3, 2, 13, 14, 23, 28, 30, 29-31A, 40 and 42 Invermay Grove; 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 and 24 and 48 Harts Parade; and 503, 505, 507, 519 and 521 Tooronga Road.

 

The remaining properties are all contributory, as are original interwar front fences at 4-6 Invermay Grove and 20-22 Currajong Road.

Longford Estate and Environs Precinct is of local historic and architectural (representative) significance to the City of Boroondara.

Longford Estate and Environs Precinct is of historic significance for illustrating the influence of the opening of the Hawthorn Station in the development of the area. The desirability of being close to a railway station and horse tramway in the pre-automotive era is demonstrated by allotment sizes and consistency of early Victorian Italianate dwellings in the precinct, indicating construction within a short period of time. The further subdivision and transition of architectural styles is further demonstrative of the desirability of the area which appeared to have remained constant until the 1920s and 1930s when the last of the vacant blocks were developed. (Criterion A) 

 

Architecturally, the housing stock of the precinct is largely Victorian Italianate style, mostly small examples of the style displaying characteristic elements such as chimneys with a rendered cornice, bracketed eaves, low-pitched hipped roofs, front verandahs with slender posts or columns and cast-iron ornamentation. The windows are double hung sash windows, some with sidelights and timber four panelled moulded timber front doors. There is a smaller group of Federation/Edwardian Queen Anne houses, which display characteristic features such as high hipped roofs, the use of terracotta ridgecapping and tiles, projecting front gables with half-timbering and timber verandah fretwork. Interwar housing stock in the precinct offers refined, simple examples of styles popular in that era. They are generally single-storey and redbrick in construction, either small cottages or semi-detached dwellings which all display characteristic ornamentation and detailing. The precinct’s bluestone pitched laneways and guttering to Currajong Road are characteristic of nineteenth century suburban infrastructure. (Criterion D)