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20 Gower Street, Kensington

Allom Lovell & Associates, 1981-20051999

Record details

Title:

Creator:

Allom Lovell & Associates, 1981-2005

Date of work:

1999

Reference number:

BIF-FLKE 104423

Level of description:

Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)

Type of materials:

Graphic materialsTextual material

Part of:

Series: Flemington and Kensington (BIF-FLKE)

Access restrictions:

UnrestrictedOpen access.

Use restrictions:

Refer to individual item records for Use Restrictions.Please contact City of Melbourne Libraries about obtaining permission to reproduce images. High resolution files may be held by City of Melbourne Libraries and available on request. Users must acknowledge City of Melbourne Libraries when reproducing items.

General notes:

Period: VictorianConstruction date: pre-1882History:The house at 20 Gower Street was constructed prior to 1882. The 1881-82 rate books, prepared in May 1882, show John McKean, a civil servant, as the owner and occupier of a five-room wooden house with a Nett Annual Value of #28. The Sands & McDougall directories are unclear about the history of the house prior to 1882. McKean continued to own and occupy the house until 1890, when it was acquired by Robert Jamieson, a gentleman. By 1891, the rate books show William Fraser, an engineer, as Jamieson's tenant, and the house had a population of nine..Description:The house at 20 Gower Street is a single-storey, double-fronted weatherboard Victorian villa with a hipped slate roof. Symmetrically composed, timber-framed double-hung sash windows flank the central entrance door which is timber panelled and has narrow sidelights. A concave roofed verandah extends across the facade, which has timber columns, now embedded in cream brick piers (c.1950s), and ornate cast iron lacework. Chimneys are of bichromatic brickwork with corbelled brick cappings. The woven wire fence is not original..Significance:The house at 20 Gower Street, Kensington, is of local historical and aesthetic interest. It is a reasonably intact example of the type of weatherboard villas built during the first phase of development of Kensington. Aesthetically, the house contributes to the largely intact Gower Street streetscape.

Names:

City of Melbourne

Topics:

Conservation studiesCity of Melbourne Heritage Review 1999Mid-late Victorian period (1875-1900)Weatherboard buildingsSlate tilesVerandahsCast iron work1880-1889

Places:

Kensington (Vic.)

Form/Genre:

Building Identification Forms (BIFs)

Record types:

Research and reports

Record number:

1277003