House

Parent Place or Precinct

25394 Union and Redfern Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

For information on the significance of the Union and Redfern Heritage Area refer to the Local Planning Policy for the Heritage Area.

Physical Description

123 Heytesbury Road was designed in the Federation Queen Anne style. Key elements include the:
• Asymmetrical façade.
• Gable-hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting.
This has an intersecting hipped roof over the main house, with a louvered gablet vent facing the street.
At the main façade, a gable end sits over the slightly projecting section of the stepped front wall. The face of this gable has roughcast rendered face overlayed with vertical timber battens and carved timber ‘brackets’. A separate timber-battened screen aligns with the front of the projecting eaves.
• Two painted-brick chimneys, each with a bulbous roughcast panel at the top, framed by projecting rendered mouldings and a rendered skirt.
• Tuck-pointed brick walls with a plain rendered string course at window sill level.
• Roughcast rendered eaves panel, commencing at window-head height.
• Hipped verandah roof, extending across the main façade and returning part-way along the eastern side of the house (where it abuts a stepped side wing).
This has square timber posts with decorative chamfers and grooved detailing, which are set in pairs at the corners. The paired posts are linked by square- baluster frieze panels and the posts are framed by elongated carved timber brackets.
• Main entrance opening off the eastern wall of the house, at the end of the side verandah.
• Rectangular wall niche with a rendered head and projecting rendered sill along the side wall, to the north of the main entrance.
• French doors at the southern end of the side verandah.
The glazed panels to the doors and the highlight have leadlight panels with variations of the same floral motif.
• Triple double hung window with a projecting moulded sill to the shallow rectangular bay near the eastern end of the main facade.
• French doors to the slightly recessed section at the western end of the main facade.
The detailing of these doors matches that to the French doors at the southern end of the side verandah.
The house is set approximately 5.2m back from the front boundary, which is defined by a scalloped timber picket fence with face-brick posts.

History

On 13 March 1883, the Western Australian government announced it would survey a section of the Perth Commonage into suburban lots and that these would then be made available for private sale. Perth Suburban Lot 274 appears to have initially been subdivided as Deposited Plan 2405 with a one-acre lot on the SE corner of Heytesbury and Hensman Roads designated as Lot 1. This had been sold to James Chesters (a local land developer) by March 1904, and was later included as part of a residential subdivision under Deposited Plan 3758 (part of which formed 115-135 Heytesbury Road).
Part Lot 32 and Lot 33 of DP 3758 were transferred to Janey Ford in March 1918 and the available evidence suggests that a house was built on the site in that year.
Jane (known as Janey) Ford had moved to Western Australia from Victoria after she was deserted by her husband, James Augustus Ford, in 1907. She quickly settled in this part of Subiaco and is known to have been living at 94 Hensman Road in c.1910-1915 and at 118 Heytesbury Road when her youngest child, Thomas (a bank officer) died in 1916.
Mrs Ford shared 123 Heytesbury Road with her other two children, John (a bank clerk, who was born in c.1886, married in 1913 and widowed in 1916) and Mary (who was born in c.1888 and remained unmarried). Mary had studied music and was listed as a music teacher in the Electoral Rolls. However, she also managed the store on the corner of Heytesbury and Hensman Roads in 1923-1927.
After Jane Ford died in January 1944 (aged 78), her children continued to live at 123 Heytesbury Road until around the time of their deaths - John in 1961 and Mary in 1969.
A comparison of current and historical aerial photographs (the earliest of which is dated 1948) shows that the building envelope at the front of the house has remained largely the same. Over time, additions have been made to the rear of the house, including major works in the period c.1985-1995.

Integrity/Authenticity

Note: The original external detailing of the building is largely intact and/or sympathetically restored/renovated, and the place has been well maintained.

Condition

Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in a good condition.

Uses

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.