The original brick bakehouse on the site at 390A Queens Parade was built in 1902 for Mr James Willmott. It was here that goods were baked for his bakery at 392 Queens Parade (currently the Cookshop Rotisserie).
The Excelsior Bakery had been serving the people of Melbourne’s inner north as far back as 1887. A newspaper advertisement from 1889 describes Mr Willmott as a baker and pastry cook, with weddings and birthday cakes being his specialty.
Local heritage has informed the architecture of Bakehouse Terraces, from the extensive use of brickwork to the window arrangements and compositions of each residence. The site’s surviving bakehouse building has also been retained and integrated across the design, most notably in the signature façade.
The site is nestled in behind Queens Parade Village and accessed via bluestone cobble laneways. Maintaining the existing bakehouse façade is a reminder of Melbourne’s bygone years when the city was predominantly bluestone and brick.
Rather than using the traditional townhouse model of dividing walls to distinguish each home, here the use of brickwork, colours and textures ensures each terrace is an individual address. Inside, the terrace homes offer a range of configurations to suit each resident, as well as a variety of neighbourhood views.