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Waverley Road Gateway Precinct

Location

45-57 Waverley Road and 895 Dandenong Road MALVERN EAST, STONNINGTON CITY

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Waverley Road Gateway precinct is located at the western entry to Waverley Road in Malvern East and comprises the Racecourse Hotel and a group of late-Victorian and Edwardian retail buildings. Commercial development in the precinct began as early as 1858 when the first Racecourse Hotel was built on what was then the main Melbourne to Dandenong stock route. The hotel took on its present form in 1926 when the building was extended and given a new Spanish Mission style facade. Retail development in the precinct commenced in 1901 when a double storey brick shop with an unusual mansard roofed tower (now known as the Bookaburra Building) was built on land adjacent to the vast Gascoinge housing estate. This coinceded with a revival of development in the estate as the economy began to recover from the effects of the 1890s depression. Construction of a second group of retail buildings at 49-57 Waverley Road around 1912 occured alongside a major phase of residential development in Gascoinge Estate, which was stimulated in part by the extension of the electric tram line along Waverley Road in 1913.

Elements which contribute to the significance of the precinct include:

- The external form and fabric of the Racecourse Hotel dating from 1926.
- The sequence of late Victorian and Edwardian retail buildings at 45-57 Waverley Road.
- Unobstructed views to Racecourse Hotel and retail buildings from the western approach to Waverley Road.
- The cohesive appearance of the retail buildings resulting from their attached form, uniform double-storey height and front setbacks, consistent face brick and render materiality and facade modules of a similar width.
- The generally high integrity of the first floor facade of the retail buildings (and west elevation of the Bookaburra Building).
- The form and fabric of extant early shopfronts (including the recessed entry to the first floor living accommodation), typically built with large timber or metal framed display windows above stall boards, smaller highlight windows (including figured glazing), glazed ceramic tile surfaces, and recessed doorways (some retaining tessellated tile floors and pressed metal soffits).
- Retail buildings with roofs concealed by parapets (the mansard roofed tower to the Bookaburra Building being a highly valued exception).
- Original brick chimneys protruding above the parapets.
- External signage on retail buildings generally restricted to the verandah fascia or suspended from the underside of verandahs.
- The limited number of modern internally illuminated signs of the retail buildings.
- The absence of on-site vehicle accommodation in the front setbacks of retail buildings and along the west elevation of the Racecouse Hotel.

How is it significant?
The Waverley Road Gateway Precinct is of local historical and aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.

Why is it significant?
The Waverley Road Gateway Precinct is historically significant as an example of a small local shopping centre which is closely associated with residential development in the highly valued Gascoigne Estate located to its immediate north (Historic Theme: 7.1 Serving Local communities). It also demonstrates how many of the municipality's earliest hotels were established along main tracks and at crossroads and became the focal point for later commercial development as communities became more established (Historic Theme: 7.4.1 Early Hotels).

The Racecourse Hotel is historically significant for its capacity to illustrate the major interwar trend of refurbishing and rebuilding hotels which followed the introduction of stringent liquor licensing laws (Historic Theme: 7.4.2 Developing a modern hospitality industry). The hotel is of added significance for the enduring use of the site as a licensed premises for over 150.

The Waverley Road Gateway Precinct is aesthetically significant as a well preserved example of an early twentieth century commercial precinct which is of particular note for landmark architectural qualities of the Bookaburra Building and the Racecourse Hotel. These two buildings define the western entry to Waverley Road and have unique or distinctive design elements in the context of the Municipality.

While the double-storey Edwardian shop pairs at 49-51 and 53-57 Waverley Road are less architecturally distinguished than the adjacent Bookaburra Building they nonetheless make an important contribution to precinct through their sympathetic form, massing, and architectural character and their generally high level of intactness.

Group

Retail and Wholesale

Category

Retail or Wholesale Precinct