Terrace Houses: 22-28 Blackburn Street. Adelaide, South Australia

This unnamed row of four double storey ashlar bluestone terraces in the Regency style includes “Wisteria Terrace” which operates as a bed and breakfast.  The others remain used as houses.  They form an important terraced city streetscape and are very typical of those in Adelaide, however with some distinctive features.

One of the most interesting features is the cantilevered timber framed balcony.  This architectural technique was typically used in Sydney to make use of space above footpaths.  In this instance it provides a column free cast iron fence framed courtyard space, solid looking though precarious.  The iron lacework treatment is also interesting.  Like many Adelaide terraces its use is somewhat subdued, however in this case the curved corner brackets (from the “Sun” foundry of Stewart & Harley, No 376)¹ contrast with the almost wrought iron sparse look of the balcony insert panels of which there are three per house.  The verandah roof above is a skillion, again another rare feature.

This row features an exposed low pitched hipped roof above a short parapet with the two middle terraces sharing the mid section gable and projecting party walls.

The hall entries are paired and surrounded by bold plain rendered rectangular moulds with small fanlight above the door.  The single double hung windows and French doors above are also distinguished by rectangular moulds.

I was not able to discern the date of construction or architect although my guess based on the style would be sometime in the 1870s, probably by one of many speculative builders in Adelaide at the time.  The houses carry a local heritage listing with the City of Adelaide (H0200876).