Braddon, Australian Capital Territory


Braddon is an inner north suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia located adjacent to the Canberra CBD.
The suburb is one of the oldest suburbs in Canberra, a relatively young city, settled in 1922 and gazetted as a division name in September 1928. It contained Canberra's first light-industrial area. In recent years this area has begun to be redeveloped as an entertainment and residential precinct. Other areas have been redeveloped with flats. It is now Canberra's most densely populated suburb.

History

The construction of the Braddon Garden City heritage precinct the area bounded by Donaldson, Elimatta, Batman and Currong streets began in 1921 and 1922. This was the only completed example of a design for a residential area in Canberra by Walter Burley Griffin. The suburb was gazetted as a division name in September 1928.
Braddon is named after Edward Braddon, a Federalist, legislator and a participant in the writing of the Australian Constitution. Streets in Braddon were named for Aboriginal words, legislators and pioneers. The first light-industrial area in Canberra was established in Braddon in the 1920s and subsequently became the centre of automotive trades, before these businesses were established in the service areas of Phillip, Belconnen and Tuggeranong and in Fyshwick and Mitchell. In recent years the light-industrial area has begun to be redeveloped as an entertainment and residential precinct. Most of the residential areas of the suburb have been redeveloped with flats.

Heritage listed areas

The following areas are heritage listed:
  • The Braddon Garden City heritage precinct, bounded by Donaldson, Elimatta, Batman and Currong streets.
  • Gorman House
  • Hotel Ainslie
  • Ainslie Primary
  • The Whitley House at the corner of Limestone Avenue and Ipima Street, a modernist house built in 1939, considered by the ACT Heritage Council to be "among the first government designed and built single-storey detached houses in the Functionalist style in Australia." The Heritage Council has permitted flats to be built behind the house, but the view of the house from Limestone Avenue has been preserved.
  • Haig Park.
  • Northbourne Oval.
  • The former Coggan's Bakery, 36 Mort Street, Braddon.

    Description

Braddon contains a commercial area centred on Mort and Lonsdale streets, which run parallel to Northbourne Avenue. The area includes several small art galleries, car rental agencies, a few mid-market restaurants, cafes and bars, trendy gift and clothes shops, as well as liquor stores and a Centrelink office. It formerly contained many car dealerships and businesses providing automotive services, but some of these are being redeveloped with six-storey apartment buildings with commercial uses on the ground floor. There are also a number of popular pubs and low-rise office blocks in the suburb.
Away from the commercial areas, much of the previously suburban housing in Braddon has been replaced with apartment buildings that are popular due to their relatively close proximity to the city. The old Fenner Hall, a residence of the Australian National University, is located along Northbourne Avenue, now as the Canberra Accommodation Centre. The suburb is socially mixed with its population including many younger professionals and students, along with some recipients of public housing assistance. Some traditional single-family homes do remain where the suburb borders Ainslie and Dickson.

Current zoning

Most of the single houses north of Haig Park and in Section 22 have been replaced by two or three-storey flats in recent years as a result of being zoned in the Inner North Precinct. Land adjoining Northbourne Avenue is now zoned to permit redevelopment with 25 metres high flats or 32 metres at the corners of Wakefield Avenue with Northbourne Avenue. The area south of Haig Park between Mort and Torrens streets in zoned to allow mixed use developments, generally 22 metres high, but 16 metres high facing Torrens street and up to 30 metres high facing Cooyong street.
The area between Ainslie Avenue, Cooyong, Donaldson and Currong street, currently occupied by four and eight-storey government flats and Catholic church land, is currently proposed for redevelopment with mixed-use buildings, with a range of building heights between 5 and 12 storeys. Originally two buildings at the corners of Ainslie Avenue were proposed to be 15 storeys high. The eastern parts of the suburb continue to be zoned for low-rise suburban housing except the sections adjacent to Ainslie Avenue, which are zoned for three-storey flats, except for Gorman House—which is heritage listed—and the Hotel Ainslie site—which is also heritage listed and zoned for a two-storey hotel.

Features

Ainslie School

Ainslie School fronts onto Donaldson Street is one of Canberra's oldest schools. It was opened in 1927 as the first official act of the Prime Minister Stanley Bruce following his arrival in Canberra. It is described by the ACT Heritage Commission as having "a high degree of integrity with intact street and site planting and relatively intact built elements and original internal fittings in the Art Deco style." It is also believed to be "the first in Australia to be planned with a library, a lecture room and a needlework room". The original building was completed in 1927 and, with the opening of a larger building for the primary in 1938, it became the infants school. From 1980, the building was occupied by Questacon and the School Without Walls. In recent years it has been occupied by the Ainslie Arts Centre.

Allawah Court and Currong Apartments

The three-storey Allawah Court flats were completed east of Cooyong street and north of Ainslie Avenue in 1956, the three-storey Bega Court was completed south of Ainslie Avenue in Reid in 1957 and the eight-storey Currong Apartments were completed east of Allawah Court and west of Currong Street in 1959 in order to cope with a critical lack of accommodation for public servants transferred to Canberra. The ACT Heritage Council described them as having been designed in the Post-War International style "similar to post-war housing in Europe, particularly in English new towns. The fine proportions, crisp detailing and low scale of
and their siting continuing the street pattern made them more architecturally successful than the three eight-storey blocks of flats along Currong Street which completed the development." The Heritage Council declined to heritage list the buildings and despite some local opposition it was proposed that they be demolished and replaced by more modern and denser accommodation along with some commercial uses. The demolition was completed in August 2017.

Braddon Garden City heritage precinct

The area bounded by Donaldson, Elimatta, Batman and Currong streets, including the street furniture, are heritage listed as "an early 20th century 'Garden City' planned subdivision" and as an example of early Federal Capital planning philosophy and architecture among other things. This area was originally named the "Ainslie Cottages Project" and the first houses were constructed between 1921 and 1922 to meet the urgent need for housing for lower grade public servants and workmen to build the civic centre and other parts of the city. It is the first expression of the Garden City concept in Canberra and it is the only completed example of a design for a residential area in Canberra by Walter Burley Griffin.

The Former Coggan's Bakery

According to the ACT Heritage Council, the former Coggan's Bakery, 36 Mort Street, "has a special association with the cultural phase of early planning and development of the nation's capital in the 1920s." It formed part of the Federal Capital Commission's early planning and was established with the designation of the Braddon area as a light-industrial zone. The Heritage Council said that Coggan's Bakery "remains as the most historically distinctive structure in the Braddon industrial area."

Gorman House Arts Centre

The Gorman House Arts Centre is a significant heritage complex that has been adapted for arts use. It is occupied by some of the ACT's key arts organisations, smaller arts groups and individual artists.
The centre accommodates intimate performance spaces, dance studios and workshops, a gallery, artists' studios, small offices for arts business, meeting rooms and a weekend art, craft and second-hand market.
Braddon's theatres and galleries are located within the Gorman House Arts Centre. They are: Bogong Theatre; Canberra Contemporary Art Space; Canberra Youth Theatre; Currong Theatre Studio; and Ralph Wilson Theatre

Haig Park

Haig Park lies on either side of Northbourne Avenue in Braddon and Turner and comprises fourteen rows of trees planted to form a windbreak and shelterbelt. It is listed on the ACT Heritage register.

Hotel Ainslie (Mercure Canberra)

The Hotel Ainslie was built in the English Arts and Craft style as a government hostel to accommodate the transfer of public servants in 1926 and 1927. Since 1928 it has operated as a hotel and has been extended significantly to the southwest. The exterior of the original structure, the garden in front of the hotel, including the Atlas cedars, Mediterranean cypresses and the Atlas cedars along Batman Street and the landscaped central courtyard are heritage listed.

Lonsdale Street

Historically an industrial area comprising car yards and factories, Lonsdale Street has in recent decades transformed into a cosmopolitan hub and the commercial centre of Braddon. Lonsdale Street is home to shops selling items by original Canberra designers, stylish Australian fashions, imported designer shoes and handcrafted gifts and homewares. There is also a mix of restaurants, bakeries, bike shops, food vans, camping stores, car yards and hairdressing salons.
During the Summernats car festival, Lonsdale Street is the site of an annual unofficial street parade, the Lonsdale Street Cruise. The parade features all types of cars and draws crowds of spectators.
Lonsdale Street was named Canberra's 'hippest hood' by The Sydney Morning Herald in September 2013.