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House
36 High Street WINDSOR, STONNINGTON CITY

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Stonnington City
36 High Street, Windsor
36 High Street, Windsor
36 High Street, Windsor
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Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The house at 36 High Street, Windsor, is significant. It was built in several phases, beginning with a timber house in 1864, to which a brick shop was added in 1873, owned and occupied by bootmaker Edward Attfield. The current house appears to date from c1880. The masonry front portico was added after 1895, probably by owner-occupier architect William Espenett.

It is a single-storey Italianate house with a symmetrical facade. Typical features of this style include the low M-profile hipped roof, ruled rendered walls and chimneys, moulded cornices to the chimneys, bracketed eaves, segmental arched openings, and cast-iron posts and frieze to the front verandah. Due to its narrow inner-suburban block, it has wing-walls along the side boundaries.

The masonry front fence and the terracotta roof tiles are not significant.

How is it significant?
The house is of local aesthetic significance to the City of Stonnington.

Why is it significant?
Aesthetically, the house at 36 High Street is distinguished by the fine classical portico added to its facade after 1895, and also by the high level of ornament applied to its wing walls. The portico is of rendered masonry, with round-arched openings on three sides with expressed keystones, and pilasters. The front arched opening is framed by pilasters, above which is a cornice and triangular pediment resting on boldly modelled modillions. The tympanum of the pediment is carefully defined by one circular and two triangular panels. (Criterion E)

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    • Physical Description 1

      House - Physical Description 1

      The house at 36 High Street, Windsor, is a double-fronted single-storey Italianate terrace house. It sits behind a modest front garden and the side walls are built to the boundaries. It has a hipped roof and symmetrically placed rendered and corniced chimneys, as well as bracketed front eaves, all typical of the Italianate style. Walls are finished in cement render.

      The facade is dominated by a fine classical portico, which is unusual in its size and formality for a house of this scale. To either side of this portico is a length of more typical front verandah. As the house is built to the side boundaries, it has party walls on both sides, higher than the house itself which are stepped down for the verandah wing walls. Each side of the verandah rests on cast-iron posts and has a heavy cast iron frieze and brackets.

      The central front door has a segmental arched highlight. To either side are paired segmental arched sash windows. The portico is also of rendered masonry, with round-arched openings on three sides with expressed keystones, and pilasters. The front arched opening is framed by pilasters, above which is a cornice and triangular pediment resting on boldly modelled modillions. The tympanum of the pediment is defined by a circular and two triangular panels.

      The party walls are also highly decorated, though in a less academic manner than the portico. On their face, beside the verandah are engaged Corinthian columns, above which is a panel and the base for an orb or urn. The transition between the lower verandah wing walls and the taller house party walls is made by two scrolled corbels.

      The roof has been reclad with terracotta tiles, while the original cladding was likely slate, as seen in the c1970s photos above, and the front door was replaced c1960s. The current high masonry front fence impedes views to the house.

      Local Historical Themes

      House - Local Historical Themes

      This place illustrates the following themes, as identified in the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, rev. 2009):

      8.4.3 Architects and their houses

      8.5.1 'Struggletown' - working-class housing in the nineteenth & early twentieth century

      8.6.1 Sharing houses

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Stonnington - City of Stonnington Victorian Houses Study

      Author: City of Stonnington
      Year: 2016
      Grading: A2


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