This early 1930s former Hardware Shop, Refreshments Room and Cake Shop has high local significance as an important commercial building popular with local residents and holiday-makers over a long period. It has been associated for at least 65 years with the Waters family, the present owners being the daughter and grandson of the original owners, Edward Waters, builder, and his wife, Eva Waters.

The former Hardware Shop, located within the small commercial centre of Belgrave South, includes an unusual two storey timber residence at the rear of the street-facing single storey, timber shop.

The now disused shop is set back from the street and encompasses two shopfronts, each with a recessed doorway with splayed panels, timber framed shopfront windows and panelled doors. The vertical, rectangular windows are banked together irregularly, with combinations of double and triple, multi-paned windows. A flat corrugated iron overhang shades the shopfronts and is cantilevered from the overhead parapet. The single storey shop has a flat corrugated iron roof which extends from the eaves line of the residence to the parapet wall.

The residence incorporates a double storey section adjoining the shop and a more recent, single storey addition at the rear of the house. The ground floor is roofed by a steeply pitched, corrugated iron hipped roof.

The upper level of the residence extends back only a single room width and is asymmetrically placed, intersecting the western extent of the ridge line and extending east in line with the ground floor exterior wall. The corner incorporates an original brick chimney capped with a striking rendered detail and the structure is roofed with a shallow pitched, corrugated iron, hipped roof.

Original features include the Arts and Crafts-inspired tapered timber window surrounds and the diamond pane window detail to the upper level and a cantilevered, shingled bay window to the east wall at ground floor. A small gable roofed balcony is located on the north-east corner of the building.

The profile and lack of finish of the older, two storey part of the residence and its connection to the c.1960s single storey addition at the rear of the building suggests that the two storey residence was originally more extensive. This recent addition has a flat, sheet metal roof and is elevated to accommodate the gentle slope of the site.

There is a single storey, timber outbuilding at the rear of the property.

Physical Conditions: Fair

Integrity: Evidence of stages