Glenferrie Road Precinct, Kew

The Glenferrie Road Precinct was identified by the 'Kew Urban Conservation Study' (P Sanderson, 1988); in the report it was called Urban Conservation Area No. 1 (D).

No precinct citations as such were prepared as part of the 1988 study, but there is a brief description of the proposed precinct focusing on the character of the individually significant buildings:

This area contains 16 structures that have been designated Grade A in the study. Most of these Grade A buildings are mansions built in the Victorian period and they are concentrated around the western end of the area, particularly in Glenferrie and Selbourne Roads. Many of these mansions no longer have sympathetic surroundings, and a number have been turned to institutional uses. The eastern end is of a different nature, being one of the few concentrations of small to medium scale Victorian housing in Kew, that resulted from housing estates of the 1880s such as the Edgevale Estate and the Doona Hill Estate. It has a very high concentration of Grade B and C buildings and they combine to form streetscapes of an homogenous nature. (Sanderson 1988: Vol. 1, 3/20)

A statement of significance was prepared for Glenferrie Road Precinct (HO150) as part of the 'Review of Heritage Overlay Precinct Citations' (Lovell Chen, 2006). It reads as follows:

The Glenferrie Road Precinct, Kew, is an area of heritage significance for the following reasons:

. The western parts of this precinct are marked by mansion development of the Victorian period, and though some are surrounded by unsympathetic later development, a significant number of individually significant early Kew mansions survive here, albeit in some cases converted to institutional uses. This is one of three notable mansion precincts in Kew, the others being HO158 (Walmer Street) and HO162 (Sackville Street).

. More modest but still valued late Victorian residential development, such as single-fronted cottages and terrace rows, is also located in the western areas of the precinct.

. The eastern section of the precinct is significant for its mixture of small and medium scale Victorian housing, much of which relates to two important 1880s estates: Edgevale and Doona Hill.

. The area has a strong visual connection with several fine assemblages of school buildings: either in its midst (Ruyton) or at its borders (Trinity, Xavier, Methodist Ladies' College).

. The area includes the former Kew civic buildings and the Sacred Heart Church and School, both in Cotham Road, the latter important to the considerable Roman Catholic heritage in the area.

. The area also includes the entire Glenferrie Road streetscape north of Barkers Road up to Wellington Street, including two of MLC's most important buildings and a mixed 1880s to interwar streetscape.

. The area includes a number of individually significant architectural designs, the majority of which are Victorian mansions

The extent proposed in the 1988 study was much as the precinct is today: an irregular polygon extending north-south along Glenferrie Road and streets to the west, and a wider section extending to Edgevale Road at the east. The precinct was originally intended to include the northern half of Trinity Grammar School, around the intersection of Charles and Wellington streets and to the north at Cotham Road, but these areas have been left out. Another change was the addition of the east side of Union Street to the precinct, which backs onto the precinct but does not share a continuous streetscape with it.

As noted in the original precinct description and the current statement of significance, HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct has a predominantly Victorian character, with a smaller number of Edwardian and interwar dwellings. While the presence of Edwardian and interwar buildings is only expressly mentioned on Glenferrie Road, others in the precinct are also graded Contributory to the precinct.

One particular concentration of interwar dwellings, most of them built in the 1930s, is on Wellington Street, just east of Glenferrie Road. There are four houses at 77-83 Wellington Street, built in 1934-37, that frame the entrance to the small court known as Franks Grove. Two of them are Old English or Tudor Revival in style (Nos. 79 & 81, Significant and Contributory, respectively), one is Georgian Revival (No. 77, Contributory), while the fourth has a simple Moderne design.

Extension character

Area 1: 4 Belmont Avenue and 154-182 Cotham Road

The south side of Cotham Road to the east of the Belmont Avenue intersection comprises a row of Victorian dwellings - terrace houses, villas and a mansion - along with an Edwardian semi-detached pair. Around the corner, at 4 Belmont Avenue, is another Victorian villa.

The house at 4 Belmont Avenue is a bichrome brick Italianate villa with an asymmetrical facade. It has a two-storey rear addition set behind the original roof. The similarity in chimney detail suggests that it was the work of the same builder who constructed 2 Belmont Street next door, which is Contributory in HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct. While No. 2 is somewhat larger, with an ogee-profile return verandah, its face brick walls have been rendered in the twentieth century. To the south, HO150 takes in Stirling Street which has a housing stock predominantly of Victorian villas, as well as a few Edwardian houses.

The extension along Cotham Road includes a row of varied Victorian villas at Nos. 172-182, which were built in the late 1880s and 1890s. As was typical in the nineteenth century, most of them are Italianate in style. These include block-fronted villas (Nos. 174 & 182) and parapeted two-storey terrace houses (Nos. 160-162), as well as asymmetrical villas with a square (Nos. 176 & 178) or canted (No. 172) projecting bay. The earliest house in the street is unusual for its time (1889) as it is Gothic Revival in style. It has an asymmetrical facade with a gabled bay to one side. The gable bargeboard is elaborately scalloped and pierced, similar to the verandah fretwork, and it has a canted bay window with a polygonal hipped roof. The property retains a pair of mature and very tall Araucaria cunninghamii (Hoop Pines) in the front yard.

Another standout among the nineteenth-century houses is the former 'Abbotsford' at 154 Cotham Road, which is now the home to the Missionary Sisters of St Peter Claver. This two-storey red brick mansion was constructed in 1894 and is an early example of the Queen Anne style. It has gables to the front and west side elevations, with a two-storey return verandah between them. The verandah is distinguished by its canted ends, heavy turned posts to the first floor, and slender round brick columns to the ground floor (similar to those seen at Ussher & Kemp's 98 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn, of 1899-1900, HO179). The house retains elaborate stained-glass highlight windows to the ground floor, though one front window has been bricked up. The architect has not been identified.

The final Contributory building to be constructed in the precinct extension is the semi-detached pair at 164-166 Cotham Road, of 1915. It has red brick walls and a hipped tile roof and is massed to appear like a single detached villa. Both dwellings have deeply arched ladder fretwork to their front verandah.

Alterations to the houses on Cotham Road include the overpainted brick (No. 182), visible rear extensions set behind the main roof (Nos. 174, 180), rebuilding of front verandah (Nos. 172, 176), removal of chimneys (No. 176), and extensions to the sides (No. 154). There is one Non-contributory property at No. 168 (single-storey brick units).

The proposed extension is very similar in its housing stock to the adjoining section of HO150 on Belmont Avenue and Stirling Street, with its strong Victorian character with a smaller number of Edwardian buildings. The 1890s mansion at 154 Cotham Road is in keeping with the 'mansion development of the Victorian period' noted in the precinct statement of significance. And like other examples noted in the statement of significance, it too has been 'converted to institutional uses'. The proposed areas to be added to the existing streetscape are of a high integrity, with only one Non-contributory property among them (168 Cotham Road,

Area 2: 1-5 Franks Grove

As noted in the discussion of the current HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct, there is a concentration of 1930s houses on Wellington Street, just east of Glenferrie Road. As seen on the 1903 MMBW plan of the area, a very large block on the north-east corner of the Wellington Street and Glenferrie Road intersection was entirely vacant at the time and apparently not developed until the interwar period.

Land owned by Edwin Franks Millar was subdivided in 1929 to create what is now 77-83 Wellington Street, 898-904 Glenferrie Road, and 1-4 Franks Grove in 1929 (LP 12882). The executors of Millar's will sold off all the house blocks between 1929 to 1936 (CT V.5486 F.108). The Franks Grove cul-de-sac was first listed in the street directories after 1935, with Peniston Flats (5 Franks Grove) and two other houses had been completed by 1937, and another one was being built. By 1941, the fourth and final house had been constructed.

This period of construction at 77-83 Wellington Street directly corresponds with that of the Significant and Contributory houses in the HO150 precinct, which were part of the same 1929 subdivision that created Franks Grove.

Stylistically, they are also closely related. Peniston Flats, which is visible at the top of the cul-de-sac from Wellington Street, is a two-storey building in the Georgian Revival style, like 77 Wellington Street. The flats building has clinker brick to the ground floor and render above, two-storey polygonal stair towers, and Tuscan-order columns to the central porch area. The house on Wellington Street has a similar materiality, with clinker brick walls, a tiled hipped roof, and Tuscan-order columns to the front porch.

There is a bold Streamlined Moderne house at 2 Franks Grove which has walls of variegated tapestry brick, a hipped roof largely concealed behind a parapet, and curved to the corners and central front porch (supported on dwarf Tuscan columns). It has a very intact setting, retaining its brick front fence, curved garden path, divided-track driveway and attached garage. While similar in style to the Contributory 83 Wellington Street, its design is far more interesting.

Finally, there are two Old English/Tudor Revival houses, at 3 & 4 Franks Grove, that can be compared to the larger examples of this style at 79 & 81 Wellington Street (Significant and Contributory). The house at No. 4 has clinker brick walls with accents in glazed manganese and cream brick batts (half bricks). The house at No. 3 is a simpler version of this style, apparently built just before the outbreak of World War II.

One of the original houses in the proposed precinct extension, at 1 Franks Grove, has been demolished and replaced recently. It is a two-storey dark grey brick box that is set to the side of the court, not impeding any views.

Area 3: 2-14 & 3-19 Rossfield Avenue

The land that would become Rossfield Avenue was only partly developed at the turn of the century. There were several houses at its north and south ends, facing the existing Fitzgerald Street and Barkers Road, as well as a few early homesteads facing Barkers Road but set well back from it. Shortly after 1910, a brick villa was constructed at what is now 2 Rossfield Avenue (initially with a Barkers Road address).

In the early 1920s, Henry Berry & Company Pty Ltd owned the land that would become the road reserve, as well as land that would be subdivided to create 2-16 & 3-19 Rossfield Avenue (CT V4669 F713). In 1927 and 1928 the company sold off the blocks of land at 5-19 & 4-16 Rossfield Avenue. Already in 1928 the street directory recorded nine existing houses on the street (five of them still vacant), and another seven houses under construction. By 1929 all houses at Nos. 2-16 & 5-19 were completed and occupied. The final two houses, at Nos. 3 & 21, were completed by 1934.

The houses along the street are very consistent in their scale and setbacks, which is due partly to their very rapid construction, and also due to the influence of one man. Builder Arthur Harper Ford purchased seven blocks of land in 1927 and 1928 and was apparently responsible for construction these houses, at 6 (demolished), 10, 11, 14, 15, 17 & 19 Rossfield Avenue. Many houses also retain their original dwarf brick front fence and concrete two-track driveway.

Ford's houses are all brick California bungalows, all but one of which has a transverse gabled roof. Great variety is created within these strictures by the uses of different material finishes (such as timber and asphalt shingles, pressed-metal panels in roughcast and fish-scale patterns, rock-faced concrete blocks, contrasting brick colours), porch treatments (such as chunky dwarf columns, tapered and straight piers, paired piers), and major and minor gables facing the street. One house (No. 17) has a hipped roof and two picturesque jerkin-head minor gables.

Apart from the California Bungalow style, there is an early 1930s house at No. 3 with roughcast rendered walls and brick bat detailing that adopts motifs from both the Tudor Revival and Spanish Mission styles (a depressed Tudor arch and a Serlian window motif, respectively). Its closest comparison is a bungalow of similar age, materiality and style (it also has a Tudor arch to the porch) at 21 Rossfield Avenue, which is already a Contributory place in the HO150 precinct.

The houses have highly intact facades, though a number of them have a two-storey extension to the rear (at Nos. 4, 8, 11, 12, 15), with the extension to No. 8 the most intrusive as it sits partway before the roof ridgeline. There are two contemporary dwellings, at Nos. 6 & 13, that are Non-contributory. A row of Non-contributory mid-20th century flats at Nos. 16-20 have been left out of the precinct extension.

Area 4: 5-19 & 2-28 Stansell Street

The land that would become Stansell Street was subdivided in 1886 as part of the Omnibus Company's Reserve. This comprised both sides of Stansell Street, the south side of Fitzwilliam Street adjoining it, and much of Edgevale Road between Fitzwilliam Street and Barkers Road (Omnibus Coy's Reserve real estate map, 1886).

By 1892, there were four houses listed on the north side of Stansell Street (S&McD). These double-fronted Victorian houses are shown on the 1903 MMBW Detail Plan No. 1572. The south side of the street was still empty.

This remained the case until 1910, when the first two houses appeared on the south side of the street. By 1915, the entire south side of the street had been developed with 14 houses. This required the subdivision of the seven original southern allotments into narrower blocks that held single-fronted cottages. Another three houses had been constructed on the north side (at Nos. 5 and 17-19), bringing the total number of dwellings to seven. The very rapid development of the south side of the street gave rise to the high level of architectural consistency on the south side of Stansell Street, with narrow gable-fronted cottages typical of the Edwardian era.

Three of the four Victorian double-fronted houses survive on the north side, at Nos. 7, 9 &15. They were originally identical in form, with an asymmetrical facade created by a projecting hipped-roof bay beside a front verandah. Each has a facade clad with ashlar-look boards and bracketed eaves. Windows are of two kinds: pairs of double-hung vertical sashes, or a double-hung sash surrounded by sidelights. All three can be considered typical Italianate villas. Of the three, No. 15 appears to be the most intact, while No. 7 has a rebuilt verandah (with a more convex roof profile). No. 9 retains an intact front facade (with some replacement of verandah details), but the low-line M-hipped roof has been raised to accommodate a modern attic storey with dormer windows on the front and sides.

The Edwardian houses are also timber structures, and all but one is a single-fronted cottage. The exception is No. 5, which is a double-fronted villa with an asymmetrical facade and high gabled-hipped roof. The projecting front gable is embellished with a simple bay window, half-timbering and a scalloped bargeboard. The elaborate timberwork continues to the front verandah, which has a convex hipped roof. The corner brackets are of particularly note, with a pierced Art Nouveau pattern. The house is highly intact externally.

The remaining Edwardian cottages are of three types: the majority have a small corner verandah tucked next to the gable front, two have a return verandah that wraps around the front facade, and there are two semi-detached pairs with small entrance porches set back between the pairs. It appears that a small number of builders were responsible for the dwellings

The Edwardian cottages share a range of features that are typical to that era. These include corbelled red-brick chimneys, walls clad with weatherboards (often embellished with bands notched like shingles), paired or single double-hung sash windows or casement windows with highlights, half-timbering or notched weatherboards/shingles to the front gable, and turned timber verandahs posts with timber fretwork in a variety of patterns. Some houses also retain timber hoods over the front windows.

Most of the Edwardian cottages are quite intact, though some have lost their original verandah posts (No. 8), and others have lost their chimney (Nos. 2 & 24), or have replacement window hoods (Nos. 12 & 14).

The gable-fronts of the Edwardian cottages lend a high level of consistency to the street. There are three Non-contributory houses at Nos. 10, 11 and 13. All of them are single-storey and follow the front setbacks of their Contributory neighbours, so they are not intrusive.

The street retains bluestone pitched kerbs and channels, though some have been asphalted over to create a crossover. There is a bluestone pitched laneway at the east end of the street running south (the northern part has been concreted over), and another running north on the west side of 5 Stansell Street.

Conclusion

The proposed extension of HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct at 4 Belmont Avenue and 154-182 Cotham Road contains predominantly Victorian as well as Edwardian dwellings. This housing stock is in keeping with the predominant character of the HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct as a whole, as is the inclusion of the mansion formerly known as 'Abbotsford' at 154 Cotham Road. They are also similar in scale and style to houses in the adjacent part of Belmont Avenue and Stirling Street that are already Contributory to HO150.

The proposed extension of HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct at 1-5 Franks Grove contains a collection of late interwar houses and flats. Franks Grove was subdivided along with the adjoining area of Wellington Street (Nos. 77-83), and dwellings were built at the same time. Due to the brief period of development, the houses in these two parts of the subdivision are also united stylistically, with Georgian Revival, Old English/Tudor Revival, and Moderne styles seen on both streets, making this a very logical extension. The late interwar houses at 77-83 Wellington Street are graded Contributory and Significant to HO150, in keeping with the mention in the statement of significance of interwar dwellings north of Barkers Road up to Wellington Street.

The proposed extension of HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct at 2-14 & 3-19 Rossfield Avenue is a very consistent streetscape of interwar houses, particularly California Bungalows. Its high level of consistency in style, scale, setbacks and materials is thanks to the rapid development of the street (1927-34) as well as the involvement of a single builder who constructed half of them. The precinct continues the interwar development at the north end - 21 Rossfield Avenue, Contributory in HO150.

The proposed extension of HO150 Glenferrie Road Precinct at 5-19 & 2-28 Stansell Street is a consistent streetscape of Edwardian (mostly) single-fronted dwellings as well as a group of earlier Victorian houses. As noted in the history, they were built during two short bursts of activity which resulted in the cohesive streetscape. The small number of Non-contributory dwellings does not affect the integrity of the streetscape. While Edwardian houses are not expressly noted in the HO150 precinct statement of significance, there are similar dwellings within the precinct that are graded Contributory, such as 15, 28, 34, 71 and 88 Edgevale Road, indicating that Edwardian (and Victorian) housing stock on Stansell Street can contribute to HO150.

For individual gradings within the precinct, please see the attached PDF citation.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residential Precinct