Houses

3. Edwardian Period (c1900-14)

Reference examples:

• Queen Anne Style; 20 Davey Street (1900)
• Conservative Italianate Survival; Hendra, 49 Old Mornington Road

For architect designed houses such as The Lofts, this era was a break from the cemented architecture of the 19th century. Colour was used to replace the perceived grey drabness of the previous era. Symmetry of form and plan was also rejected as was the application of manufactured ornament in layer upon layer to create the 'decorated box' of the late 19th century. In its place was honesty in architecture and materials.

19. Illustrated in building journals of 1889, this villa was to be erected near Frankston: although late Victorian in period, the design foreshadows the Edwardian trend to revival of medieval styles and Queen Anne architecture (a blend of medieval and classical influences). Half timbered gables, timber details to verandahs and brick chimneys (red) were all elements which were to be used in Edwardian housing.

Natural materials were expressed not stimulated and the plan and form followed the whim of the would be resident rather than a predetermined formula. As a reaction to the industrial revolution where taste itself was manufactured, the new trend was to make your own ornament in a hand­crafted manner, carving woodwork, making leadlights (ie. the Arts and Crafts movement). The two major new house styles were the American Queen Anne Revival (Queen Anne) and the Federation Bungalow, the latter following the pattern of British Colonial architecture of India and South-East Asia, as the informal house of the tea plantation.

The federation period raised a sense of nationalism which in turn looked to a less formal architecture suited to rural surroundings. Arts and Crafts Australian fauna and flora, in leadlight or ceramic, gave the Australian stamp to the verandahed hipped-roof form of the British Colonial Bungalow, in parallel with its Eastern detailing. Similarities exist between the two styles but only vague similarities between the Federation and later Californian Bungalows.

Siting
Plan shapes of the Queen Anne Style villas were calculatedly asymmetrical with room bays facing at angles to the frontage. However many of Frankston's few surviving Edwardian houses adopt the old symmetrical hipped roof villa from of the Victorian era, or the asymmetrical but simple L-plan still seen in other suburbs (see 21 Spencer Road). As with the late Victorian era, houses were detached and set-back from the frontage.

20. Typical Edwardian verandah detailing: timber turned posts, brackets and slatted friezes [Haddon].

Walls

Timber Wall Cladding
Timber cladding, as in the last century, remained more common in Frankston either as a carry-over of the Victorian period ashlar-pattern boarding, or as bullnose or square-edge weatherboards. Timber and brick were often combined with rough-cast stucco applied on sawn softwood lathes on the upper part of the wall.

Brick Wall Cladding
Bricks were commonly red, pressed, Hoffman sized bricks set in cement or composition mortar in a cavity or Flemish bond (front) and with flush mortar joints or, less commonly tuck-pointing (refer Early to Mid-Victorian era). Rough-cast or smooth stucco or red terra-cotta ornament or mouldings were used sparingly in contrast to the previous period. Ovolo timber cover mouldings were also used at horizontal and vertical joints between finishes.

Stucco
Uncommon as a total finish but used for relief against the red brickwork or painted timber. Rough cast stucco relied upon large cinder aggregates to achieve a high-build 'rough' surface: this may be achieved with basalt aggregates and high-build lightweight renders today if the cinder types are unavailable. The finish, a light-coloured water washed cement slurry coat and left unpainted.

Roofing
The gabled roof dominated among Queen Anne style houses, either set facing the street or facing side and front boundaries and with rough-cast stucco and pseudo half-timbering generally in dark (brown) colouring, contrasting with the natural cement of the rough-cast. The main roofline was nevertheless generally hipped or Dutch-hipped, providing a high backdrop for the gables on the bays.

Where exposed, imported or locally made Marseilles-pattern terra-cotta tiles, corrugated iron (painted as terra­cotta) or slates were used. Whatever material was chosen terra-cotta ridge and gable apex decoration prevailed (dragons, gargoyles, simple pinnacles), or simulated in terra-cotta coloured painted pressed metal.

Verandahs
Attached verandah roofs were commonly of a return hipped bullnose profile (sometimes skillion), in corrugated iron, with shaped rafters under. Alternatively it was a simple continuation of the main roof-line over the verandah (see Fig. 20). Residual Victorian era roof forms such as the convex profile were built here in the Edwardian era. Support was mainly with turned timber posts and panelled vertical timber slatting or fret-sawn valances or brackets for ornament. Victorian period cast-iron friezes persisted (as did square-section posts) but often in new Arts and Crafts inspired or Jacobean patterns. Later decorative versions incorporated Far Eastern (Chinese, Japanese) motifs in the valance.

Roof Drainage
Eaves now extended well beyond the wall line, particularly at the decorative gabled fascias. Rafters were exposed, eaves sometimes lined with T and G pine and gutters were pressed metal ogee-pattern but more likely to be on brackets rather than the spike method of fixing and thus are more easily replaced with today's products. Downpipes were still circular in section. The late Victorian pattern also persisted with carved eaves brackets determining the depth of eaves.

21. Leadlight window casements using plant motifs as the design inspiration [Evans]

Openings
Windows were either, as for the Victorian period (transitional), or more likely the Tudor pattern bottom and side-hung casement sash pairs with small top-hung sashes as top-lights, usually with panes of pastel coloured obscured glass or leaded panes of Arts and Crafts plant patterns. Some transitional Frankston examples, have both the old double-hung sashes and casement sashes. Doors were typically three-panel with two long panel pairs at the base and a single segment-arched often glazed panel at the top (see diagrams). Red Pine was a common joinery construction material.

Chimneys
Shafts of red brick with stucco panels or ribs, with simply splayed terra-cotta or- corbelled brick cornices. Many subtle variations exist on this theme, along with the carry-over cement Victorian chimney cornices.

Fences
As for the Victorian period, but more lavish with the same-choice of carved picket heads plus additional square or round tops, with added scalloping (or swagging) in the profile of the fence. Capped timber picket fences were also used and rarely (if at all in Frankston), face or stuccoed red brick piered fences often with similar capping mouldings to those used on the chimney cornices. Swagged brick panels between the piers were further options, using bull-nose brick edging.

Colours
(Refer Early to Mid-Victorian era) Given a greater diversity of timber detail and therefore scope for more colours.

Gardens
Serpentine asphalt pathways lead from the gate to an entrance placed usually to one side of the house. Informal evergreen shrub planting replaced the Victorian era's flowering annuals as the garden emphasis, using both native (Lilli-Pilly and Pittosporum) and exotic (Tree Privet).