DUPLEX, 1 KNUTSFORD STREET

Statement of Significance

Duplex, 1-3 Knutsford Street has historic significance as an attached pair of stone residences that represents the expansion of Fremantle in the gold boom period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The place has aesthetic significance as a Federation semi detached residence, and although altered, it makes a important contribution to the streetscape of the Monument Hill locality.

Physical Description

Duplex 1 Knutsford Street is one of a pair of mirrored single storey attached houses in the Federation Queen Anne Style with some modifications from the Post War Era and 1990s. The house is slightly elevated with a hipped roof with gablet, a distinctive projecting facetted bay to the façade and a recessed entrance. A bullnose, timber framed verandah runs across the façade. The facetted bay has timber framed windows and a French door. The timber framed front door with fanlight and sidelights has been retained. There is a brick fence to the front boundary with piers and steelwork panels.

History

1 - 3 Knutsord Street, a limestone duplex is not evident on a 1904 plan of the area, but is shown on a 1910 plan, indicating they were constructed between these two dates. On a 1913 PWD plan the stone duplex is numbered 155 and 157 Hill Street (the current address is from the 1930s) and they have verandahs across the front and rear elevations. Historic aerial photographs from 1947 to 2025 show that the two residences have the same footprint and roof form suggesting that neither has been extended. A photograph from 1979 shows 1 Knutsford with a projecting faceted bay with horizontal format windows, a recessed entrance and a tiled skillion verandah across the façade with steel and wrought iron posts. The walls have been rendered and the roof tiled. The place appears to have been modified in the Post-War Era. A 1987 photograph shows that the house has been refurbished with a timber framed bullnose verandah to the front, an archway added to the recessed entrance, and the modification of the windows to the bay to a pair of double hung sashes and a central set of French doors. The render to the walls has been ashlar lined. 1 Knutsford Street was not added to the original Municipal Heritage Inventory in 2000 but it was identified in a 2010 review as a place that should be heritage protected. In 2025 the place was recommended for heritage protection as a part of the Annual Update of the Heritage List and Local Heritage Survey and on 13 August 2025, Fremantle Council resolved to add the place to the Heritage List and Local Heritage Survey with a management category of Level 3.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity High / Authenticity Moderate

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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