URBAN CHARACTER Case Study: Camberwell
Character is “…the feeling it creates in you … you walk through the area and you feel comfortable with it … you get a reasonable continuity of single dwelling homes, leafy trees…”
Camberwell is an upper middle-class suburb with a major shopping strip, first developed in the 1880s as a railway suburb. It’s station is a principal node on the public transport network, being well-connected to a number of tram routes, and was slated for substantial redevelopment in 2003. The character of Camberwell emerges in the context of a struggle both to stop the station redevelopment and to limit what are seen as inappropriate developments in surrounding neighbourhoods. Camberwell is seen by those engaged in this struggle as a 'comfort zone' reflected in a consistency of both people and architecture; the suburb has a certain 'taste' coupled with a 'modesty' that precludes displays of status. Its identity is constructed through of a series of oppositions with other places seen as threats—'tasteless' pseudo-historic houses, displays of new money, new cultural values, higher densities and crime.