Terrace Houses: "Lilydale" (9), "Thorpdale" (11), "Bairnsdale" (13) and "Rosedale" (15) at The Parade, Ascot Vale. Melbourne, Victoria

This small row of single storey terrace homes are interestingly named after towns in Gippsland (eastern Victoria) founded during the Victorian era.  That is at least three of them are still towns – Lilydale has since become absorbed in metropolitan Melbourne.

The individual houses are in the Italianate villa style and have white paint over their render.  They are significantly detailed for small narrow homes.  Each have their own parapet treatment, with the names in a round cartouche with a small crown and flanked by pilasters and scrolls and pineapple finials (although all but one are missing) in a similar pattern to many Melbourne terrace homes.  Beneath the cornice is a small frieze of very fine brackets, adding some detail to the facade.  The party walls have mouldings in crystal shapes and a classical triglyph.

The verandah is slightly bullnosed and angled to reveal its corrugated iron roof, framed by thick rounded party walls with a panel of vermiculation at the front.  There are brackets and fringe in iron lace with pendants.  The single window is quite large and wide with two spiralled cast iron columns between two  narrow flanking double hung windows.  The party walls curve out dramatically to meet the solid front palisade fence and gateposts to create deep courtyards.

These terraces most likely date to around 1888, the year that the railway was established and the area was first developed.

I was quite shocked to find many of the homes in this area with signs saying “We Oppose Inappropriate Development” apparently created by an organisation known as “Save Our Streets”.   I asked a resident about the signs and they told me that residents were furious about the lack of heritage controls and that several significant nearby heritage homes in the area had been demolished to make way for multi-storey apartment buildings, however the group’s lobbying had managed to stop another of them.  While the City of Moonee Valley does provide some heritage controls for the simply stunning examples of Ascot Vale Victorian era heritage I was quite suprised to find that none currently apply to this row of terraces and similar ones nearby.