Bant Residence

Statement of Significance

The place has cultural heritage significance for the City of Subiaco:
• As a good local example of a well-designed and detailed Inter-War California Bungalow, built to a style and scale suited to a successful business family of the 1920s; (aesthetic value)
• For its direct association with long-term residents and business proprietors, ‘Horrie’ and Ethel Bant, who owned and managed Bants Furniture Stores, with premises at 110 Rokeby Road and 294 Barker Road; (historic value)
• For the manner in which it provides a physical expression of the success of the Bant family, who operated their furniture business from c.1914 until at least the 1950s, a period in which there was generally a high turn-over of business owners and operators in Subiaco; (historic value)
• For the manner in which it helps to demonstrate the adaptation of some of Subiaco’s large early twentieth century residences for alternative uses since the mid-twentieth century, reflecting changes in the local community over time. (historic value)

Physical Description

Architectural style
292 Barker Road was influenced by the Californian Bungalow style. It was designed to a scale and form generally considered suitable for occupiers such as successful business and professional men of the era.
Plan form at the street frontage
• Asymmetrical design, featuring a stepped facade, with the first setback forming an entry vestibule.
• Spacious front porch which wraps around the stepped south-west corner.
Roof form, materials and details
• Complex gable-hipped roof.
This has two large gables to the street frontage, two along the western side, and a gablet at either end of the ‘L’ shaped main ridgeline. The rear portion of the roof, which is not visible from the main street frontage, has a simple hipped form.
• Terracotta roof tiles with terracotta dragon finials to the apex of each of the porch gables and slightly less ornate finials to the other gables and gablets.
• Wide battened eaves.
• Simple pattern of vertical timber battens to the face of each of the gables.
• One face brick chimney with a flat rendered cap and a pair of terracotta chimney pots.
Wall materials and finishes to the main facade
• Tuck-pointed brick walls with a rendered string course at the height of the porch balustrade.
• Deep rendered lintels to the doors and windows.
Porch details
• Curved balustrade wall along the front (southern) side of the porch.
• Balustrade constructed of tuck-pointed brick with a rendered cap to the curved front section. Rendered face to the straight, side section.
• Group of three robust timber posts set over the balustrade piers at each corner. On each face of the porch, the posts are linked by a panel of two wide timber slats to the upper half.
• Entry steps, with a rendered balustrade wall, projecting from the western side of the porch (opposite the main entrance door).
Other detailing to main facade
• Main entrance on the western side of the entry vestibule.
This has a high-waisted door with a leadlight upper panel, flanked by half-height sidelights with complementary glass panels and raked and rendered sills.
• Small window opening on the southern side of the entry vestibule.
This features two casement windows, fitted with small panes of obscure glass and has a prominent, projecting rendered sill.
• French doors opening onto the porch from the second setback.
• Shallow, rectangular bay window to the room fronting the eastern portion of the main façade.
This features a raked and rendered base panel; moulded projecting window sill; raked, tiled awning; and triple casement windows, each with a large lower pane and a set of 6 textured glass panes to the upper third.
Streetscape Setting
• House set back approximately 2.8m from the street frontage.
• Side set back of approximately 4.8m on the western side and approximately 1m on the eastern side.
• Western setback paved as a driveway, with a garage/carport towards the rear of the house.
• Front yard enclosed by a low rendered masonry wall with tall, rendered masonry piers and metal palisade infill panels.
• Now set in a residential/commercial streetscape with a mixture of traditional and modern buildings. Flanked by a public carpark on the western side.

History

On 13 March 1883, the Western Australian government announced it would survey a section of the Perth Commonage into large suburban lots and that these would be made available for private sale. During the 1890s, Perth Suburban Lot 204 was subdivided into 50 building blocks (Deposited Plan 1381), with frontages to the eastern side of Rokeby Road, southern side of Broome Road (Hay Street), Perth Street (Churchill Avenue), and northern side of Barker Road.
The subject site was laid out as Lots 46 & 47 of this subdivision, but it was not until 1929 that it was identified in the Post Office Directories. By that time it had been developed as the family home for William and Ethel Bant, who had purchased Lots 45-47 in February 1925.
William Horace Bray (Horrie) Bant (c.1882-1957) and Evelyn May Styles (c.1884-1951) were married at the Subiaco Anglican Church in March 1909 and had 7 children in the period c.1910-1922 (two of whom died in infancy). By the time of her marriage, Ethel already had an established family connection to the furniture business, through her father, William Henry Styles (who had been the manager for the Commonwealth Furniture Supply Company and subsequently established his own furniture emporium under the name Styles & Co.). Mrs E Bant was identified as the proprietor of a furniture shop at 93 Rokeby Road in c.1914-1915 and William Bant was identified as the proprietor of a furniture shop at 106/110 Rokeby Road from 1916 (located at the south-east corner of Rokeby Road and Churchill Avenue).
The family occupied a residence attached to the latter in c.1916-1927, before moving into their newly built house at what was originally known as 290 Barker Road (now 292-292A). While this was separate from the business premises, historical aerial photographs show that a lane at the rear of this house provided easy access to the rear of their Rokeby Road shop. By 1938 the Bant family had extended their furniture business into additional premises at 294 Barker Road (Lot 45, immediately west of their house) and had a small furniture factory in this immediate vicinity.
The Bant family continued to operate a furniture business at 110 Rokeby Road and 294 Barker Road until at least the mid-twentieth century. They were among a relatively small number of people who demonstrated success in maintaining business premises in Subiaco over the long-term (as demonstrated by their long-term retail activities and the quality of their home). ‘Horrie’ Bant was also a well-known footballer who played in the Victorian and Western Australian leagues, including playing for Subiaco when they won their first premiership, in 1912. In later life he was a prominent member of the Subiaco Bowling Club, winning the Subiaco Club's championship nine times in succession.
Ethel and William remained at 292 Barker Road until around the times of their deaths, after which the house continued to be occupied by their youngest daughter, Coral, and her husband, Lawrence Charles Rodoreda (engineer).
The streetscape setting of the house changed in the early 1960s, when the lots to the west (including Lot 45) were cleared and redeveloped as a carpark at the rear of the shops along Rokeby Road. Within a few years, the site of Bant’s former business premises at the corner of Rokeby Road and Churchill Avenue had also been fully redeveloped. Coral and Lawrence Rodoreda were still listed at 292 Barker Road in the Electoral Rolls of 1968, but had moved away by 1972.
In the late 1970s the property was purchased by a group of 9 medical practitioners, and in the mid-late 1980s a commercial building was erected in the former rear yard, with laneway access from the adjacent carpark.
In the City of Subiaco Local Heritage Survey (as adopted 22/06/2021) the place was assessed as being of Considerable Significance (Level 2).

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity - Moderate - The former residence has been adapted as an office, but its original design and purpose can still be readily understood in streetscape views.
Authenticity - High: The original external detailing of the building is largely intact and/or
sympathetically restored/extended, and the place has been well maintained.

Condition

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

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.