Puckle Street

Location

001-141 & 2-146 PUCKLE STREET, 2-12 MARGARET STREET, 633-639A MOUNT ALEXANDER ROAD, 28A-32 SHUTER STREET, and 28 & 35 PRATT STREET, MOONEE PONDS, MOONEE VALLEY CITY

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Puckle Street precinct in Moonee Ponds is a commercial area comprising buildings that predominantly date from c.1885 to c.1940. The following buildings and elements contribute to the significance of the precinct:

- The intactness to the key periods of development.
- The integrity of the contributory buildings above ground floor level.
- The consistency of scale and siting of buildings.
- The remnant nineteenth century residential buildings, now surrounded by later additions.

The following buildings contribute to the significance of the precinct:

- 1-47, 53-73, 85-95, 101-107, 121-125 & 129-141 (odds) and 2-12, 16-32, 38-46, 50-64, 70-104, 108-120, 128 & 132-146 (evens) Puckle Street
- 2-12 Margaret Street
- 633-639A Mt Alexander Road, and
- 30-32 Shuter Street.

Non original alterations and additions to contributory buildings and the buildings at 14, 48, 49-51, 66-68, 75, 97-99, 106, 109-119, 122-126, 127 & 130 Puckle Street, 28 Pratt Street and 28A Shuter Street are not significant.

How is it significant?
The Puckle Street precinct of local historic and aesthetic significance to the City of Moonee Valley.

Why is it significant?
Historically, Puckle Street is significant as the main commercial centre of Essendon since the 1880s. Retail centres such as these, which initially developed around railway stations and along tramlines, were an important regional focus from the late nineteenth century until the emergence of car-oriented shopping centres in the late 1950s. The importance of Puckle Street is illustrated by the diversity of commercial premises, which range from single shops to larger emporios and also by the number of banks. The remnant residential building illustrates the earlier incarnation as a residential area and its transition to a commercial centre by the early twentieth century. (Criteria A & D)

Aesthetically, it is significant as a fine collection of single and double-storey shops characterised by masonry construction embellished with rendered ornamentation. The form, finish and general ornament allows each period to express its differences from within the basic form and thus illustrates a series of milestones in commercial development of Puckle Street through the Victorian, Edwardian and Inter-War periods. (Criteria D & E)

Group

Commercial

Category

Commercial Precinct