Shops; 71-75 High Street, BERWICK

The building located at 71-75 High Street containing three adjoining shops with residential accommodation above, is significant. Later extensions to the rear of the property are not original and do not contribute to the significance of the place.

The building is of local historical and aesthetic significance to the City of Casey.

The group of Tudoresque English Revival shops are considered historically significant to the City of Berwick as a notable group of shops demonstrating the economic prosperity of Berwick during their time of construction in the 1920s. The property was built as an investment by Sir Sidney Sewell of Roads End, Beaumont Road, a notable Berwick resident of the period. (Criterion A)

The Shops at 71-75 High Street are of aesthetic significance, with the upper levels designed in a Tudoresque English Revival style. The building is a good example of the 1920s design interest in English vernacular architecture, expressed through a red brick lower level with the upper level clad in dark vertical timbers and red brick chimneys externally expressed on the western, eastern and northern sides. The ground level is comprised of three interwar metal framed shopfronts with recessed doorways. The four small Tudoresque gables located above the shops have paired contrasting windows with picturesque six-paned upper sashes and intact flowerboxes below the sills. (Criterion E)