Terrace houses in Australia began to be built in early 19th century Sydney, closely based on the models found in London and other UK cities. They soon developed unique features, particularly elaborate balconies, and became a very popular form of housing right through the Victorian era, with some still built in the Federation era. Large numbers of terraced houses were built in the inner suburbs of the two large Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne, mainly between the 1850s and the 1890s, with some examples in the smaller cities and towns.
This was a period of population boom started by the Victorian and New South Wales Gold Rushes of the 1850s and finished by the economic depression in the early 1890s. Detached housing had also been built in suburbs further out, and in the smaller cities and towns, and became much more popular by the time of Federation in 1901 in Australia, and became the norm after WW1.
From the 1970s new townhouse type developments, sometimes nostalgically evoking old style terraces in a modern style, began to be built in inner and even middle areas. At the same time, older terraced houses in Australian cities became increasingly sought after, for their charm and proximity to the CBD, and by the 2010s became expensive real estate, much like inner city terraces in London and row houses in New York and elsewhere.
History and description
Terraced housing in Australia ranged from expensive middle-class houses of three, four and five storeys down to single-storey cottages in working-class suburbs. The most common building material used was brick, often covered with stucco.
Many terraces were built in the Filigree style, characterised by cast iron balustrades and trim on the verandahs, sometimes up to three storeys. Many terraces were built speculatively, sometimes a whole block length of 12 or more identical houses, but most often with fewer, and there are many single examples as well, built individually on subdivided blocks, in a street mixed with longer rows and sometimes detached houses, and with varied setbacks. There are also examples of 'semi-detached' terraces, with each having a side setback.
At the beginning of the twentieth-century, with the growth of suburban areas of detached houses, terrace houses in Australia fell into disfavour, along with the inner city areas, and many became considered slums. In the 1950s, urban renewal programs were often aimed at eradicating them entirely, not infrequently in favour of high-rise development. From as early as the 1960s, there has been a very strong revival of interest in terraced houses in inner-city areas, with most inner city areas gentrified by the early 21st century.
Origins While the practice of building attached houses that share a common wall is not a new one – and can be seen in Pompeii and in walled Medieval cities in EuropeTurner (1995), pg 17 – the combining of these separate dwellings into a single, unified row of houses is a modern concept. Early examples include Gothic ecclesiastical accommodation, such as Vicars' Close, Wells, and early European instances of town planning, such as the Place des Vosges, Paris. The canal houses of 16th-17th century Dutch and Belgian cities were often built uniformly to the property line. As with Australian terraces, frontages were narrow, allowing as many houses as possible to cram along the banks of the canal. When the first owner of the house had more houses built by the same carpenter or contractor and using the same or mirrored design these were called twin or triplet houses.
In the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, streets of houses with identical fronts were built as a result of the Rebuilding Act 1666 that was passed to regulate the reconstruction. The Act specified the types of houses that could be built, and this had the effect of standardising much of the new housing stock. For instance, houses of the Third Sort were specified as being three storeys plus cellars and garret, with the height of the first floor being 10 ft, the second floor being 8 ft and a half, and so on. In the Georgian Era, the concept of a single, unified row began to take form, where rows of houses started being treated as if they were one long palace frontage by giving the houses columned fronts under a shared pediment, as can be seen London's Grosvenor Square (1727) and in Bath's Queen Square (1729). The Adelphi, a block of 24 unified neoclassical terrace houses built between 1768 and 1774 by the Adam Brothers, was the first to have the term 'terras' applied to it. The building was influenced heavily by Robert Adam's visit in 1755 to Diocletian's Palace in Split, Croatia (previously Dalmatia). Similar to the Palace, the houses of Adelphi terrace are grouped in one long continuous frontage. The houses shared common walls and identical brick facades decorated with stucco pilasters. Notable terraces from this era include The Circus, Bath (1754–1768), Royal Crescent, Bath (1767 and 1774), Cavendish Crescent, Bath (1817–23), Chester Terrace, London (1825), Brunswick Terrace, Brighton, (1828), and Carlton House Terrace, London (1827–1832).
The terrace became the prevalent form of housing in Georgian-era England, where most of the urban population lived in row, or terrace houses. It was natural therefore, that the inhabitants of the fledgling Australian cities of Sydney and Hobart should look to imitate their homeland. According to Brian Turner, author of Australia's Iron Lace (1985) and The Australian Terrace House (1995), the first recorded terrace in Australia is believed to be Underwood's Tenements.Turner (1995), pg 19 Built before 1826 by James Underwood on George Street, Sydney, it consisted of a terrace of shops with residences above.Fowles (1848), pg 12-13 One of the earliest surviving examples of residential terraced housing is Horbury Terrace (built circa 1836), which was 'the private residence of many respectable families'''.Fowles (1848), pg 83 Of the original seven houses only two are still standing today, at 171 and 173 Macquarie Street. Like other Sydney and Hobart terraces of this era, Horbury Terrace mirrored the prevailing Regency architecture style popular in London at the time. It had a chaste, simple Georgian facade with symmetrically placed eight-pane windows. Most notably, imported from Regency London are the small, uncovered balconettes decorated with airy, Regency-style cast iron railings.Turner (1985), pg 20-21 The balconettes are believed to have been partly decorative and partly functional, providing a safe platform for cleaning windows. In 1841, Lyons Terrace was built overlooking Hyde Park for Samuel Lyons, a successful auctioneer and former convict. Three years before its completion, the Building Act 1837 had been passed by the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales. Some of its most prominent measures dealt with fire control, and it required Lyons Terrace to have its party walls raised 1 foot and 6 inches above the roof-line. In a significant departure from the unroofed balconettes of the time, the houses of Lyons Terrace featured repeated, covered balconies with cast iron balustrades on the first two floors.Turner (1995), pg 25-27 Lyons Terrace obviously had an effect on the young city. It was repeatedly painted and photographed by locals and visitors alike, and curiously, time and time again it is marked in maps of the city, as if considered a landmark. Out of all the terraces built in Regency-era Sydney, it is Lyons Terrace that Brian Turner considers to be "the prototype for the thousands of Sydney terrace houses that followed."New South Wales
Sydney As the oldest city in the country, the city of Sydney possesses the country's oldest European buildings and houses, and showcases many of the styles and trends of Australian architecture.
Early Terraces Early Europeans were housed in primitive dwellings of necessity, such as tents, and mud and wood slab cottages. Few examples survive, but a notable one is Elizabeth Farm Cottage, Parramatta (1793). Resources were scare in the fledgling colony and houses of brick and masonry were rare, so it was not until the 1820s that Underwoods Tenements – believed to be the first terrace – was built.Turner (1995), pg 19 Both Underwoods Tenements and the still-standing Coles Buildings, Millers Point () followed a subdued version of the Old Colonial Georgian vernacular, with windows arranged symmetrically and simple bald-faced facades lacking ornamentation. Susannah Place, The Rocks (1844) also has a chaste, simple facade. A former grocery store and residential terrace which housed domestic occupants until 1990, it is now a museum of working class history. Jobbins Buildings, The Rocks () with its subtle breakfront and diminished central pediment aspires to a more tasteful Regency style,Howells, Morris (1999), pg 26-27 but its facade was still absent of the filigree verandahs that characterised later Victorian terraces. As the Regency style was embraced in the 1830s, the facades of terraces such as Horbury Terrace, Macquarie Street () were adorned with unroofed balconies decorated with airy, Regency-style ironwork imported from England. Another surviving example from the Regency period is 39–41 Lower Fort Street, Millers Point (), designed by John Verge.Turner (1995), pg 24
The passage of the Building Act 1837 enforced the raising of party walls above the roof-line, leading to projecting party walls (both above the roof and on the street-facade separating each dwelling) becoming one of the defining characteristics of Sydney-style terrace houses.Turner (1985), pg 25-29 One of the first terraces to be built under these new laws, the three-storey Lyons Terrace, Hyde Park (1840–41), was the first to feature a double storey verandah along its facade, decorated with cast iron railings. Lyons Terrace, with its double storey filigree screen, is considered to have ushered in the Victorian Filigree style, in which most of the terraces of Sydney, and the rest of Australia, were built. Terraces built in the Victorian Filigree style featured prominent verandahs decorated with intricately textured filigree screens made of timber and cast iron.Apperly, Irving, & Reynolds (1989), pg 60-63 Wrought iron was rarely used.Robertson (1962), pg 7 These lacy filigree screens were at first simple; on Lyons Terrace only the balustrade was made from lacy cast iron, but the style eventually developed to include brackets, friezes, fringes, and sometimes even double-friezes.Apperly, Irving, & Reynolds (1989), pg 60 Elysium & Gadgecombe (), a terrace pair in Leichhardt, features cast iron lacework from at least two separate foundries, including Corinthian verandah columns, lyrebird-inspired baluster panels, fan-motif brackets, and a double-frieze (one frieze incorporating a lily pattern and the other a grapevine pattern).