TERRACED HOUSES

The terraced houses at 8-10 Garsed Street, Bendigo, built for John Renwick in 1895 are significant. Significant fabric includes the:

The terraced houses at 8-10 Garsed Street are of local historic, representative, and aesthetic significance to the City of Greater Bendigo.

8-10 Garsed Street is historically significant for its association with John Renwick who purchased the allotment on which the residences of interest stand with ‘another’ on 15 November 1870. As a young man Mr Renwick came from Leeds, England to try his luck on the Bendigo goldfields. He established a successful carrying business based around the railway and local transportation and later became the chairman of the Bendigo Tramway Company and Director of the Bendigo Rolling Stock Company. Renwick owned the neighboring allotment from which he ran stabling for his carrying business, Renwick and Co. By 1895, Renwick had built two houses on the subject site, each described as ‘land and house’, and each valued at £30. Railway employees rented the houses for most of the years from 1895 until Renwick’s death in 1902 (Criterion A).

The brick terrace houses at 8-10 Garsed Street, built in 1895 for John Renwick, is historically significant as a surviving and intact example of an extant modest terrace built in the central area of Bendigo to house workers. Permanent residences replaced tents and huts in Bendigo’s central area after Richard Larritt’s survey of Sandhurst township in 1854. However, few buildings remain in Bendigo’s centre that represent the history of residential development in that area. Because of their proximity to the commercial centre, and due to the redevelopment of parts of Bendigo with large-scale commercial premises and carparking, many original residences have been demolished; others have been significantly altered and adapted for commercial use.

The terraced houses at 8-10 Garsed Street are a fine representative example of late Victorian housing built in the centre of Bendigo for workers. Their design is representative of the Queen Anne-Italianate style fusion that was developed during the 1890s and into the early years of the twentieth century. In Bendigo, the distinctive hybrid style from this period is also referred to as ‘Bendigo Boom style’ and reflect the preferences of prominent local architects of German and Austrian backgrounds. As is typical for such houses, it retains details of the Italianate style with double hung timber widows with spiral colonettes, cast iron verandah (8 Garsed Street) and Italianate chimneys. Characteristics of the Queen Anne style are seen in the asymmetrical planning with projecting steep gable bays and finials that bookend the terrace giving the impression of a single residence. Notable details include: the entrance doors with fielded panels, the engaged spiral colonettes between the window panels on the projecting bays, and the cast iron lace work to the gable barge board (10 Garsed Street) and front verandah (8 Garsed Street). The projecting wing walls, iron wall vents and cream terracotta chimney pots are also notable features (Criteria D and E).