ARCHITECTURE

Maintenance and restoration.

• 127 p. : col. ill. ; 32 cm. First Edition
• Bibliography: p. 125.
• Architecture, Domestic — Australia — History
• Architecture, Domestic — Australia — Conservation and restoration
• #170624
• Terrace houses in Australia began to be built in early 19th century Sydney, closely based on the models found in London and other UK cities. They soon developed unique features, particularly elaborate balconies, and became a very popular form of housing right through the Victorian era, with some still built in the Federation era. Large numbers of terraced houses were built in the inner suburbs of the two large Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne, mainly between the 1850s and the 1890s, with some examples in the smaller cities and towns.^[1][2]

  This was a period of population boom started by the Victorian and New South Wales Gold Rushes of the 1850s and finished by the economic depression in the early 1890s. Detached housing had also been built in suburbs further out, and in the smaller cities and towns, and became much more popular by the time of Federation in 1901 in Australia, and became the norm after WW1.

  From the 1970s new townhouse type developments, sometimes nostalgically evoking old style terraces in a modern style, began to be built in inner and even middle areas. At the same time, older terraced houses in Australian cities became increasingly sought after, for their charm and proximity to the CBD, and by the 2010s became expensive real estate, much like inner city terraces in London and row houses in New York and elsewhere.^[2]

• Terraced housing in Australia ranged from expensive middle-class houses of three, four and five storeys down to single-storey cottages in working-class suburbs. The most common building material used was brick, often covered with stucco.

  Many terraces were built in the Filigree style, characterised by cast iron balustrades and trim on the verandahs, sometimes up to three storeys. Many terraces were built speculatively, sometimes a whole block length of 12 or more identical houses, but most often with fewer, and there are many single examples as well, built individually on subdivided blocks, in a street mixed with longer rows and sometimes detached houses, and with varied setbacks. There are also examples of ‘semi-detached‘ terraces, with each having a side setback.

  At the beginning of the twentieth-century, with the growth of suburban areas of detached houses, terrace houses in Australia fell into disfavour, along with the inner city areas, and many became considered slums. In the 1950s, urban renewal programs were often aimed at eradicating them entirely, not infrequently in favour of high-rise development. From as early as the 1960s, there has been a very strong revival of interest in terraced houses in inner-city areas, with most inner city areas gentrified by the early 21st century.