A WALK AROUND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Thornbury is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km north from Melbourne's Central Business District. Its Local Government Area is the City of Darebin. At the 2011 Census, Thornbury had a population of 17,434. Thornbury is bordered by the Merri Creek to the west, and the Darebin Creek to the east. The heart of Thornbury is known as Thornbury Village, and is located at the centre of Thornbury at the intersection of High Street and Normanby Avenue/Clarendon Street. Thornbury is shaped as a thin strip of land sandwiched between Northcote and Preston. Its east-west width being over six times greater than its north-south width.

For 111 years Thornbury was part of the former City of Northcote Local Government Area, which existed from 1883 until June 1994. As such, Thornbury is universally understood to be a demographic and commercial satellite of Northcote, along with Westgarth, although the latter does not have its own postcode. Whilst both Westgarth and Thornbury each have their own distinct central hub, unlike Westgarth, the majority of Thornbury is too far away from its centre for the whole of Thornbury to ever be able to develop its own separate identity.

We went for a walk today (being the Melbourne Cup and public holiday for the Melbourne Metropolitan area) and wandered up into Thornbury. This is just to the north of our suburb, Fairfield, and we looked at the great variety of houses. Most places are still the traditional, free standing bungalows, a few dating from Victorian times (e.g. Victorian terraces), many from the Edwardian time (timber, gabled houses), some from the post WWI years, many from the post-WWII years (brick), and the of course the newly built ones.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme.

Typical 50s-60s house

Renovated house with second floor extension

Most Australians are very house-proud and the homes tend to have beautifully maintained gardens.

A "Californian"-style bungalow

Beautifully renovated Edwardian house with car port added recently in the same style

Another renovated Edwardian timber home 

Interesting Edwardian that has been given a brick veneer 

A typical Victorian terrace, one of a row of similar houses 

The Wales St Primary School 

(opened 1 October 1891 as the 'Prince of Wales Park State School').

Another view of the Wales St PS, a grand Edwardian building.

The California Bungalow style was particularly popular in Australia from 1913 onwards. This period coincided with the rise of the Hollywood film industry, which popularised American clothes, furniture, cars and houses, and also with the increased importation of U.S. architectural magazines into Australia, a society which previously had been heavily influenced by British domestic styles. This one is in need of some loving restoration.

Typical 1940s clinker brick home.

Newly built double storey units, sharing a single house block. Many lovely old homes are now being demolished and in their place anything up to six units are being built. There is not much room for gardens and the noise levels increase, privacy issues arise and the demand on resources increases also.

A beautifully restored classic early Edwardian. Note the timber construction and corrugated iron roof.

An Art Deco brick home, probably pre-WWII.