596 Spencer Street

What is significant?

Robert Taylor was the owner, architect and builder of these row houses in 1876.

He lived in 596 (then 239) Spencer Street until 1886, but retained ownership for at least another ten years.

The other occupants included William Stubbs, Richard Manly, Edward Day before 1896, when all the tenants were women, Sarah Williams, Margaret Anderson, Caroline Malony, Mary-Ann Barber.

Contributory elements include:
a two storeyed, parapeted and stuccoed brick row of four.

transverse gabled, corrugated iron clad roofs behind
the parapet;

cast iron two level verandahs, with friezes, integral
brackets, and roundel pattern iron;

cemented chimneys;

simple cemented decoration typical of the early
Victorian-era including cornices, cricket bat mouldings
with scrolls on the verandah walls, together with the
parapet urns;

double-hung sash windows and 4-panel doors with
toplights;

raised siting, with stone steps up to the verandah;

iron fences on dressed stone plinths, with iron side
fences rather than masonry but with a cemented and
capped post at the end houses; and

contribution as part of a long Victorian-era residential
streetscape.

Integrity is good despite missing parapet urns on
592-596 (see urns on 590 Spencer Street) also some
details altered.

How is it significant?
Linton terrace or Taylor’s row houses are significant historically and aesthetically to West Melbourne.

Why is it significant?
Linton terrace or Taylor’s row houses are significant.
Aesthetically, an early and near original row of a common West Melbourne row house form and a contributory part of a valuable Victorian-era streetscape;
and
Historically, a speculative row by the architect-ownerbuilder and representative of the start of a major growth period in West Melbourne

source: ‘West Melbourne Heritage Review’, Graeme Butler & Associates, 2015.