The untouched brick Victorian, which has just come on the market, is frozen in time – a relic of life in the once working-class suburb.

With its battered wood and peeling paint, stepping inside 8 St Georges Road South, which belonged to a World War II veteran, is like walking onto the set of an Australiana movie.

Antiques and nicknacks throughout reflect trends through the decades, from its mishmash of motif and floral wallpaper to checkerboard linoleum, beaten leather suitcases stacked atop a rickety wardrobe, a dresser with an old sunhat hanging from the mirror, a Glomesh bag dangling above a fireplace, vintage gossamer curtains and a squat, boxy television.

The interior is not staged or styled – the dinky two-bedroom home was lived in and loved, as it is, by generations of the same family.

Now the property has hit the market and selling agent Steven Scalise, from Chambers Real Estate, expects it to sell for upwards of $640,000 at its auction on Valentine's Day.

The vendor Maria was bequeathed the home by war veteran Eric Worsley.

Maria, 60, is a long-time Fitzroy North local and was Mr Worsley's carer until his death almost two years ago, aged 102. The centenarian's mother Mary also lived there until she was well over 100.

Longevity goes hand-in-hand with this patch of real estate.

The rooms have remained virtually unchanged in decades.

Maria said she greatly misses Mr Worsley and has left the property in its original state out of respect.

"It was a palace for him," she said.

For Maria, the house is more than bricks and mortar – it is the backdrop to her childhood.

"The home means a lot to me," she said. "I grew up in this area and I used to go the picture theatre across the road. When I was a little girl there was a children's matinee show and all the local children would congregate out the front, and Eric said he could hear the chatter of the children waiting for the doors to open."

f the walls could talk they would tell tales of parties in the 1920s, at in which flappers shimmied and danced the Charleston up the hall while ladies in the kitchen made supper.

By the 1960s, the gramophone was old hat and the beat had changed, with vinyl on the turntable in the living room.

In the lounge a copy of the 1980s Aussie dinner party favourite Hooked on Classics sitsnext to the turntable, ready to go.

The only semblance of modernity is the bathroom off the rear courtyard, but even that is decades old.

The story Victorian terrace in Fitzroy North is frozen in time first appeared on The Age.