Commercial Premises (fmr)

Statement of Significance

• The place has aesthetic value for its demonstration of the form and detail of a simple Inter War commercial premises with adjoining residence.

• The place has historic value for its association with the development and establishment of this portion of Bayswater in the 1920s.

• The place has social value as a demonstration of the type of shopping available in the suburbs during the first half of the 20th century.

Physical Description

A single storey shop of brick construction with an adjoining house to the rear, set on a corner lot. It has a hipped and gabled corrugated metal roof that addresses the primary street frontage with a large gable. The brickwork has been painted and the shopfront has a glazed tile dado.

The front entry door to the shop is recessed and located on the right with large panes of shopfront glazing immediately left of the door. The left side of the frontage is a large opening covered by a roller shutter. It has a full width quarter round convex canopy across the shopfront with the year of construction on the wall above.

The building has no front set back and adjoins the footpath. The secondary street frontage has small high level windows to the shop area and larger windows at a lower height towards the rear for the house. The building has a driveway along the left boundary of the lot, a concrete verge to the primary street frontage and a lawned verge to the secondary street frontage with mature plantings along the side wall of the building.

History

The subdivision plan for this portion of Bayswater was approved by the Department of Lands and Surveys in 1899. The lots were not taken up rapidly and in the early 1920s there were few residents in Cox Street. However the growing numbers must have been sufficient to enable the construction of a small shop and premises to be built in c1929.

The first occupant was Violet May Barnes who operated a store from the premises and lived at the rear of the shop. There were a series of other occupants and business managers throughout the first half of the 20th century.

Aerial photographs indicate that the building originally had an awning across the elevation facing Cox Street. This was removed by the 1970s and later a bullnose awning was added. In 1981 the main portion of the building had a red Colorbond roof which was replaced in 2013.
Recent renovations have included annotation across the front elevation stating c1910. The owners may therefore have additional information that indicates a construction date earlier than indicated by the Post Office Directories which may be confirmed by further research.

The original lot has not been subdivided but a new building was constructed on the rear portion of the lot in c1990 facing Grafton Road. Additional roof structures have been constructed around the rear of the building since then. The form and extent of the original premises can still be determined.

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.