Westbourne St - Lorne St - Chatsworth Rd

The Westbourne Street Precinct is a residential area largely developed during the land boom period of the 1880s. Westbourne Street was subdivided in 1881 and allotments in Lorne Road and the northern end of Chatsworth Road were auctioned the following year. The precinct developed with a mixed character with large numbers of modest workers cottages built in close proximity to larger middle class villas. Almost all housing lots in the precinct had been developed before the depression of the 1890s brought an abrupt halt to building activity across Melbourne. The precinct retains a high proportion of building stock from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century with few modern infill buildings.

Elements which contribute to the significance of the precinct include (but are not limited to):
-high degree of intactness of the area to its c1920 state arising from the low proportion of modern infill;
-intactness of individual buildings to their original states. Dwellings typically survive with their presentation to the street largely unaltered retaining verandahs and decorative timber or cast iron detailing;
-consistent single-storey height and modest scale of built form;
-face brick, timber or render materiality and gabled or hipped roofscapes with chimneys and roofs in slate or terracotta tiles or plain galvanised corrugated metal;
-generally uniform pattern of modest front and side setbacks;
-low front fences in most sections of the precinct (excluding Chatsworth Road);
-road alignments and allotment patterns resulting from nineteenth and early twentieth century subdivisions; and,
-the almost total absence of vehicle accommodation in front or side setbacks.

How is it Significant?

The Westbourne Street Precinct is of historical and aesthetic significance at a local level.

Why is it Significant?

The Westbourne Street Precinct is of historical significance for its capacity to illustrate the rapid development which took place in Prahran during the late nineteenth century. It further demonstrates the relationship between social stature and topography with higher densities of workers' cottages on the lower ground to the south and grander villas of the middle and upper classes a few hundred metres to the north (Historic Themes: 8.2.1 Mansion estates and the high ground - middle class estates in Prahran; 8.5.1'Struggletown' -working class housing in the nineteenth and early twentieth century). While this was reasonably typical of early development in the Municipality, it is rarely survives in the clear and legible manner found in this precinct.

In addition, the precinct illustrates the pattern of infill development which occurred during the Edwardian period on sites left vacant through the 1890s depression (Historic Theme: 3.3.5 Recovery and infill 1900-1940).

The Westbourne Street Precinct is of architectural and aesthetic significance as a rare urban landscape. It comprises a diverse collection late nineteenth and early twentieth century housing types ranging from small single-fronted single storey timber cottages to more elaborate double-fronted symmetrical houses with bichromatic brickwork. The area is extraordinary within this section of the Municipality for its intactness to its late nineteenth century state and the extent to which its early character survives.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residential Precinct