House

Parent Place or Precinct

25912 Kings Road Heritage Area, Subiaco

Statement of Significance

The place has cultural heritage significance:
• As a good representative example of the many 4-5 room brick homes which were built in Subiaco during the early twentieth century to meet the needs and aspirations of middle-class residents such as public servants, senior office workers, small business owners, skilled tradesmen and single/widowed women of private means.
• As a good representative example of the application of materials and detailing which were derived from the Federation Queen Anne style, but which were applied in a more restrained manner that suited the budgets and expectations of the middle classes in Subiaco during the early twentieth century.
• For its aesthetic contribution to a largely intact group of early twentieth century houses.
• For its association with the rapid development of Subiaco in the early 20th century and the small scale development by local builders, in this instance Walter Lay.

Kings Road is of cultural heritage significance within the City of Subiaco for the following reasons:
• The existing development along Kings Road continues to represent the rapid development of the higher parts of Subiaco (near Kings Park) with good quality Federation Queen Anne houses during the early the twentieth century (with a particular focus on the c.1901-1914 period).
• The defined period and nature of development along Kings Road resulted in a complementary palette of materials and design idioms, enlivened by a diversity of individual details. Unlike many other local streets, the majority of the properties have retained a medium to high level of authenticity. Collectively they provide a good representative collection of middle-class Subiaco houses dating from the early twentieth century (extending from c.1901-1923).
• The character of the Kings Road streetscape epitomizes the general character of what is now known as the City of Subiaco’s Triangle Precinct.
• The history of the houses along Kings Road helps to demonstrate the original settlement of this part of Subiaco as a solid middle class area, in which the family residences of more senior white-collar workers existed side by side with the smaller, but still well-built, houses of more junior white-collar workers, retail employees and tradespeople.
• The history of the subdivision and early sale of residential lots along Kings Road helps to illustrate the status of Western Australia as a place of opportunity during the gold rush era of the late nineteenth century – attracting significant interest and investment from the eastern states.

Physical Description

Architectural style
• Federation Queen Anne.
This is of a scale and form typical of a well-built (but not ornate) suburban villa of the era.
Plan form at the street frontage
• Asymmetrical stepped façade.
This has a projecting wing on the southern side, with an abutting verandah extending across the remainder of the frontage.
Roof form and materials
• Hipped-gabled roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting.
This has a short north-south ridgeline at the apex, flanked by small louvered gablets; and a prominent gable over the projecting wing.
The verandah has a dropped bullnose roof.
• Battened eaves.
• Two face-brick chimneys, with decorative roughcast panels below corbelled stepped caps.
Wall materials and finishes to the main facade
• Painted brick (originally tuck-pointed face-brick) walls with a roughcast rendered string course at window sill height and a matching roughcast rendered eaves panel.
Detailing of main façade
• Prominent gable over the projecting wing.
This has been re-clad with flush panel sheeting. It would have originally featured a more highly detailed finish, probably featuring roughcast render and a decorative pattern of robust timber battens. Some evidence of the original detailing/finishes may remain behind the later cladding.
• Shallow projecting rectangular window bay to the projecting wing, set with triple casement windows.
These windows have square highlights; a projecting rendered sill, and decorative curved under-sill panel. They are shaded by a mid-late twentieth century style curved metal awning.
• Main entrance set in a recessed arched bay under the verandah (abutting the projecting wing).
This has traditional moulded timber architraves; a 5-panel door; highlights; a single wide sidelight; and stained glass panels.
• Single, full-height double hung window opening onto the front verandah.
• Turned timber posts and arched timber verandah frieze.
Streetscape setting
• Front facade set back approximately 3.5m from the front boundary.
• Unfenced front boundary backed by a grassed yard.

History

This part of Subiaco had been laid out as a residential subdivision by September 1891, but there was only one resident listed along the street in the Western Australian Post Office Directory of 1901 (referring to Park Street) and 2 in 1905 (referring to King’s Road). This was followed by a rapid period of development and by 1910 there were 14 houses within the Study Area, being 73 Bagot Road (now known as 3 Kings Road), #s 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21 Kings Road, 12 Hamersley Road (now 28 Kings Road) & 14 Hamersley Road (now 25 Kings Road). Steady infill continued after that time and the street was fully developed by the mid 1920s.
Lot 87 was still vacant when it was transferred to Walter Lay of Subiaco, builder, in September 1910. The Certificate of Title confirms that Lay then retained the property until 1915, when it was sold to Percy Scarterfield, salesman. However, the Rate Books listed Scarterfield as the owner/occupier in 1910/11 and 1913/14. This indicates that Scarterfield almost certainly purchased the property from Lay on the basis of a deposit and schedule of payments over time, which was a common method of purchasing a house from a builder/investor at that time.
Online records suggest that Percy Scarterfield migrated to Australia with his wife Ellen in April 1911 - the same year in which he was identified in the English Census as a 25 year old single “clothier” who was living with his parents at 57 Linden Gardens, Chiswick, Middlesex (which indicates that he married shortly before migrating and provides a link with “Linden Villa”, the name that he gave to his house in Kings Road).
Walter Lay (c.1865-1953) was born in Victoria, but had moved to Western Australia by the time of his marriage in March 1900. In the Electoral Roll of 1903, Lay was listed as a builder of West Leederville. Following his first wife’s death, he married for a second time in 1905 and had relocated to Subiaco by 1906 – when he advertised under Builders & Contractors in the Trades section of the Post Office Directory, with premises in Hamersley Road. Lay continued to advertise as a builder in the Post Office Directories until his retirement in the late 1940s and the available evidence indicates that he was involved in a considerable amount of residential development in the Subiaco area, including speculative development. The earliest advertisement found for a house built by Lay in Subiaco dates from late 1903 and he advertised at least eight more 4 to 6 room villas for sale in 1907 to 1919, after which newspaper notices indicate that he was placing the sale of his houses into the hands of an agent. It is therefore almost certain that Walter Lay was responsible for the construction of 10 Kings Road as a speculative development.
The block changed hands a further three times over the next few years, including transfers to James Lawrence, telegraph operator (1917); Alfred Collier Trenoweth, builder (1920) and Emily Johnstone, married woman (1924)
The next owner was Eliza Caroline Augusta Hastie, who purchased 10 Kings Road in 1935 and retained it as a rental property until her death in October 1939. It was offered for sale by the executors of her estate in September 1942:
TO BE SOLD BY PUBLIC AUCTION [under instructions from] ….THE PERPETUAL EXECUTORS, TRUSTEES AND AGENCY COMPANY (WA), LIMITED ….. As ADMINISTRATOR of the Estate of the late MISS E. C. A. HASTIE.
No 10 KING'S-RD. SUBIACO ….. Ptn Perth Suburban Lots 244 and 245, pt Lot 87, Plan 352 …. Brick Villa, front verandah, 4 rooms, kitchen, linen press, pantry, bathroom (en bath, basin, chip heater), large enclosed back verandah, laundry, c and t’s. sew, el, gas. Well situated, elevated position, close Thomas-st. Excellent transport.
The house continued to change hands regularly, with subsequent owners including L Doyle Ltd (1942); and Isobel Burn, married woman (1947)(died August 1950).
Reference to an inter-war era Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Department plan, plus a review of historical aerial photographs dating from 1964 and 2016, indicates that the building envelope of the front part of the house has remained largely unchanged.
An analysis of the readily available information suggests that the primary occupants of the property from its time of construction until c.1950 included:
c.1911-1913 Percy Scarterfield, salesman
Note: In 1914, by which time he was living in Cottesloe, Percy Scarterfield gave his occupation as ‘draper’. By the mid-1920s he had established his own drapery business in Northam.
1914-1916 Harold Vincent Johns, bank official, and Mrs A Johns, dressmaker
1917-1920 James Lawrence, civil servant, and Annie Elizabeth Lawrence, married woman
1921-1922 James Long
1923 Vacant
1924-1925 John Barbour Johnstone and Emily Johnstone
1925-1927 John Millar Donnes, accountant, Alberta Adelaide Donnes, home duties, and Dorothy Annie Donnes, spinster
1928-1933 John Barbour Johnstone, grocer (died June 1932), and Emily Johnstone, home duties
1934 Joseph Naughton
1935-1936 Everard William Scutt, accountant
1937-c.1950 George Henry Burn, labourer, and Isobel Burn, home duties

Integrity/Authenticity

Medium authenticity
The authenticity of the house has been diminished by the painting of the original tuck-pointed face brickwork, the re-cladding of the gable and the addition of a mid-twentieth century style window hood.

Condition

Good

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.