53-63 Victoria Crescent

The property at 53-63 Victoria Crescent, Abbotsford, comprises a series of red brick former manufacturing buildings dating from the 1910s to 1940s. The two storey c.1940 building on the curve of Victoria Crescent, has wide overpainted rendered bands above the ground and first floor steel-framed windows, a central entry, and an easternmost breakfront bay with fluted mullions, cornice mouldings and Moderne signage to the upper rendered band. The single storey c.1920 building on the corner of Victoria Crescent and Zetland Street, has a corrugated steel-clad transverse hipped roof, brick stringcourse and upper cornice, and overpainted cement dressed lintels above the rectilinear windows and door openings. Behind the Victoria Crescent frontage, and facing Zetland Street, a series of gable-roofed and gable-ended red brick buildings step down the site towards the river. The gable ends have a variety of openings, including timber-framed windows with steel bars and cement-dressed lintels and sills, doors including large loading doors, and vehicle openings.

While the historical significance applies to the whole of the site, the focus of the architectural significance is on the buildings to Victoria Crescent, and the gable ended forms of the buildings facing Zetland Street. The rest of the built form on the site has very restricted visibility from the public streetscapes.

How is it significant?

The property at 53-63 Victoria Crescent, Abbotsford, is of local historical and aesthetic/architectural significance.

Why is it significant?

The property at 53-63 Victoria Crescent, is of local historical significance. The red brick former manufacturing buildings date from the early twentieth century, principally from the Tweedside Manufacturing Company period of operation; they were makers of woolen cloth who occupied the property for nearly fifty years. Tweedside was preceded on the site, back into the nineteenth century, by other operations including a tannery, an earlier wool scourer, belt maker and sauce and jam manufacturer. This history is representative of the broader history of industry along the Yarra River in Collingwood and Abbotsford, where sites on the river banks attracted factories, including noxious industries that relied on the water for washing and used the river as a dumping ground for waste. The property is also of local aesthetic/architectural significance. While the buildings generally, as types, have parallels with other former industrial buildings throughout the municipality, the 1910s-1940s factory and administration buildings survive here as a historically related and substantially externally intact group on a single property. The c.1940 Moderne building is the more distinguished, with its long facade positioned on the curve of Victoria Crescent, enhanced by the steel-framed windows, wide overpainted rendered bands, and the Moderne detailing at the east end in particular including the fluted mullions, cornice mouldings and 'TWEEDSIDE' signage. The single storey c.1920 building on the corner of Victoria Crescent and Zetland Street is less distinguished, but still demonstrative of a former factory complex building of its period. The utilitarian buildings facing Zetland Street also have a strong presence to that street, and to this area of the Yarra River environs, through their complementary gabled forms.

Group

Manufacturing and Processing

Category

Factory/ Plant