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Painsdale Place Precinct

Location 860-864 Swanston Street,, CARLTON VIC 3053 - Property No B7264 File Number B7264 Level Regional

[1/1] B7264 864 Swanston Street

Statement of Significance

What is significant? The Painsdale Place precinct occupies the site of Crown Allotment 7, which was first purchased by Henry Stephenson in 1858. In about 1862 he subdivided it into two by creating Painsdale Place, leading east from the then Madeline Street (now Swanston Street) and providing access to the rear of the block. A two-roomed timber cottage was built at the rear facing Holmwood Place (now rebuilt in brick) by 1860. William Stephenson, probably Henry's brother, a stonemason from Northumberland, built a stone cottage with a cellar for himself on the south side of Painsdale Place by 1860, and in 1862 added the two stone cottages at 862 and 860 Swanston Street and a brick cottage facing Holmwood Place. The northern block, now at 864 Swanston Street, was bought in c1865 by Frederic Rutherford, who built the timber house that still survives on the site. Several earlier smaller timber cottages at the rear of the block have since disappeared. The stone houses have been altered internally, but remain substantially intact. The house at 864 Swanston Street appears to have remained unaltered during the nineteenth century but modifications to the front verandah and front windows occurred at some time in the early twentieth century.
The Painsdale Place precinct includes six single storey houses, all dating from the1860s, surrounding Painsdale Place. To the south of Painsdale Place are three bluestone cottages, one with a large cellar, and two semi-detached and facing Swanston Street. A brick cottage opens directly onto Holmwood Place, adjacent to another brick cottage which was originally an 1860 timber cottage. The house at 864 Swanston Street is a symmetrical four-room timber house with an M-shaped gable roof. It has a central entrance and a verandah across the front behind a small front garden. The two small rooms attached to the rear were originally a kitchen and servant's room.
How is it significant? The Painsdale Place precinct is significant for historical and architectural reasons at a Regional level.
Why is it significant? The Painsdale Place precinct is historically significant as a reminder of the earliest history of the suburb of Carlton, and especially of the history of subdivision in the area. The houses surrounding Painsdale Place are historically significant as an unusual collection of houses dating from the earliest days of European settlement in Carlton and as rare surviving examples of the sort of house once relatively common in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, before the extension of the Melbourne Building Act to the suburbs. They are also important as the homes of some of Carlton's earliest settlers and of Italian immigrants, a most important part of Carlton's heritage, after the 1930s.
The houses in the Painsdale Place precinct are architecturally significant as surviving examples of the sort of timber and bluestone cottages once common in the area, but now less so. The house at 864 Swanston Street is architecturally significant as a rare surviving example in Carlton of an M-gable timber house. Although small timber worker's cottages were once common in gold-era Carlton, larger timber houses such as this have always been uncommon in the inner suburbs and today are extremely rare. The houses facing Swanston Street also make a significant contribution to the varied and impressive streetscape in this part of Swanson Street.
Classified: 28/02/2005