Hornby St/Somerset Place, McIlwick St

The Hornby Street Precinct, Windsor, is a residential area of late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings developed adjacent to, and incorporating, the Presentation College and Prahran Windsor Primary School. Development in the area largely occurred through the 1870s, predating the land boom, although consolidation of the area to its current arrangement continued into the 1880s and beyond. Some important buildings, most notably school buildings in Hornby Street associated with the Presentation College were constructed during the early decades of twentieth century.

Elements which contribute to the significance of the precinct include:

. Tight subdivision patterns in residential streets and lanes of the Precinct contrasted with the large institutional sites.

. High degree of intactness of the area to its c.1920s state.

. Streetscapes of straightforward residential buildings which engender a late nineteenth/early twentieth century character. These include some simple but unusually early buildings such as important early group at 15-19 Hornby Street

. Individual residences such as 19 Hornby Street, 35 and 37 McIlwrick Street, Hopetoun Terrace, at 1-11 Elm Place, Victorian dwellings at 169 and 171 Dandenong Road and others are of individual note.

. Intactness of individual dwellings to their original states. Early cottages and villas typically survive with their presentation to the street largely intact retaining verandahs and decorative detailing.

. Small garden setbacks to the street which are generally free from vehicle accommodation.

. General absence of modern infill development and prominent additions and alterations particularly in Elm Place, Frederick Street and the western sections of McIlwrick Street.

. Face brick, timber or render materiality to external walls.

. Roofscapes with chimneys and pitched roof forms clad in corrugated galvanised steel or slate tiles.

. Modest scale of the residential buildings which are typically of one storey.

. Institutional buildings of high architectural distinction, including buildings and impressive fences on the Presentation College site and the Prahran/Windsor Primary school (including 1915 additions).

. The modest factory group around the intersection of Frederick and James Street dates from c.1920 but nonetheless contributes to the character and significance of the area and an understanding of its later development.

. Bluestone kerb, channelling and paving in some streets and laneways.

How is it significant?

The McIlwrick Street Precinct, Windsor, is of local historical and aesthetic significance.

Why is it significant?

The Hornby Street Precinct, is of historical significance, retaining some of the earliest, fully-developed streets in the former City of Prahran (3.3.1 Crown Land Sales, 3.3.3 Speculation and land boomers). Development in the area generally predates the surge of urban development which swept across South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor during the land boom although some development continued into the 1880s and beyond. In addition, the precinct illustrates the way in which rapid and unplanned speculative development c.1870s often produced dense streetscapes of modest workers housing (8.5.1 Struggletown - working class housing) adjacent to grander institutional buildings (3.3.4. Uncontrolled and unplanned development). The working class origins of this area are also reflected in the small factories, which demonstrate the growth of manufacturing in and around Chapel Street during the interwar period (6.2 Creating a manufacturing industry for Victoria).

The Hornby Street area is of aesthetic significance for its largely intact collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings. The neighbourhood contains representative examples of modest cottages and villas of the period as well and a number of individually significant residential and institutional buildings. The Presentation College is of particular significance as fine Victorian Gothic building. The adjacent Windsor Prahran Primary School is a handsome towered edifice in polychrome brick and is an important building in its own right. Together, the schools create an early educational precinct around Hornby Street. Unusually tight and intact arrangements of Victorian and Edwardian housing stock, prominent institutional buildings and the contrasting grain of the two, combine to create an urban landscape that is found rarely within the Municipality. The precinct remains largely intact to its early state with few modern infill buildings or visible additions.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residential Precinct