New Street

The New Street Precinct developed as part of the broad surge of development through Prahran and the inner suburbs more generally through the 1880s. The construction of the railway through Armadale to Oakley had created an irregular group of blocks which would produce the unorthodox arrangement of streets and lanes that survive on the site today. By 1888, development had begun in Mt Pleasant Grove, Mount Pleasant Street and Munro Place (now Osment Street) along the railway. New Street was established in the early 1890s with thirteen dwellings constructed, more or less, simultaneously. Development halted abruptly with recession of the early 1890s, commencing again in the early twentieth century. At that time Munro Street (now Osment Street) was developed with modest villas with quaint names such as Suffolk House, Rhyll, St Ambrose and May Cottage. Development ceased again during WWI, resuming during the late 1910s to complete the present arrangement of streets, dwellings and allotments. The area is largely intact to its c.1920 state.

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 small front and side setbacks;
-low front fences in most sections of the precinct;
-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 New Street Precinct is of aesthetic, architectural and historical significance at a local level.

Why is it significant?

The New Street Precinct is aesthetically significant as an unusual surviving urban landscape. This is a product of the modest scale of its buildings and allotments, the character of its dwellings and their shallow front setbacks, and the planning of its streets and rights-of-way. Areas of this integrity are becoming increasingly rare. Many were lost to the slum clearance programs of the Housing Commission during the 1960s and 1970s and the demolition of modest early dwellings and blocks are consolidated for redevelopment continues. The area is highly intact to its c.1920 state with few modern interventions and the greater part of its building stock demonstrates a high level of integrity to its original form.

The New Street Precinct is architecturally significant as an intact collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings. It is comprised consistently of timber cottages or other modest forms of housing on very small blocks demonstrating the unusually high densities often achieved in Prahran and Armadale during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The New Street Precinct is historical of significance for the manner in which it illustrates the early development of the Municipality. The area developed in two distinct and legible phases which allow the boom of the 1880s, the recession of the early 1890s and the recovery in the early twentieth century to be understood (Historic Theme: 3.3.5 Recovery and infill 1900-1940). In addition, its narrow streets and relationship with railway illustrate the ad hoc nature of nineteenth century planning (Historic Theme: 3.3.4 Uncontrolled and unplanned development). The precinct generally, and New Street in particular, demonstrates the modest standards of accommodation and amenity enjoyed by early residents of Prahran (Historic Theme: 8.5.1 'Struggletown' -working class housing in the nineteenth and early twentieth century). Although no longer extant, the historical associations with Victory Square add to the interest of the area .

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residential Precinct