SHOP

The two-storey shop, with residence above, is in the Free Classical style with tall undulating parapets between piers. The shop stands on a narrow corner site, giving it a distinctive massing and visual prominence. The piers and parapets are of smooth render, with red and clinker brick between them. At ground floor level, the shop retains its return cantilevered verandah, and original shopfront detailing apart from the door.

Later alterations and additions are not significant.

How is it significant?
The shop is of local historical and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?
Theshop is historically significant as tangible evidence of the interwar subivisions that took place in the Rothwell Hill area, relatively late for Ascot Vale. The land between The Crescent, Bloomfield Road and McCully Street was known as The Rothwell Estate and subdivided into 20 shop and residential allotments and auctioned in November 1924. The shop was built the following year. It also demonstrates a bygone aspect of pre-WWII life: Prior to widespread car ownership and home refrigeration, neighbourhood corner stores were an important amenity in residential areas, where day-to-day needs could be purchased. The painted signage advertising Nestle's chocolate is a tangible reminder of the building's former use. (Criterion A)

The shop is aesthetically significant for its picturesque roofline of undulating parapets on a highly visible corner location make it a local landmark, and for the retention of its original shopfronts with details including leadlight highlight windows, metal-framed shop windows, and brown glazed tiles with chequered bands to the stallboards. (Criterion E)

Group

Retail and Wholesale

Category

Shop