diff --git a/docs/api-guide/responses.md b/docs/api-guide/responses.md
index f83b8194a..399b7c23f 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/responses.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/responses.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ REST framework supports HTTP content negotiation by providing a `Response` class
 
 The `Response` class subclasses Django's `SimpleTemplateResponse`.  `Response` objects are initialised with data, which should consist of native Python primitives.  REST framework then uses standard HTTP content negotiation to determine how it should render the final response content.
 
-There's no requirement for you to use the `Response` class, you can also return regular `HttpResponse` objects from your views if you want, but it provides a nicer interface for returning Web API responses.
+There's no requirement for you to use the `Response` class, you can also return regular `HttpResponse` or `StreamingHttpResponse` objects from your views if required.  Using the `Response` class simply provides a nicer interface for returning content-negotiated Web API responses, that can be rendered to multiple formats.
 
 Unless you want to heavily customize REST framework for some reason, you should always use an `APIView` class or `@api_view` function for views that return `Response` objects.  Doing so ensures that the view can perform content negotiation and select the appropriate renderer for the response, before it is returned from the view.
 
diff --git a/rest_framework/compat.py b/rest_framework/compat.py
index 76dc00526..a19bd778b 100644
--- a/rest_framework/compat.py
+++ b/rest_framework/compat.py
@@ -33,6 +33,12 @@ except ImportError:
     from django.utils.encoding import force_unicode as force_text
 
 
+# HttpResponseBase only exists from 1.5 onwards
+try:
+    from django.http.response import HttpResponseBase
+except ImportError:
+    from django.http import HttpResponse as HttpResponseBase
+
 # django-filter is optional
 try:
     import django_filters
diff --git a/rest_framework/views.py b/rest_framework/views.py
index c28d2835f..37bba7f02 100644
--- a/rest_framework/views.py
+++ b/rest_framework/views.py
@@ -4,11 +4,11 @@ Provides an APIView class that is the base of all views in REST framework.
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 from django.core.exceptions import PermissionDenied
-from django.http import Http404, HttpResponse
+from django.http import Http404
 from django.utils.datastructures import SortedDict
 from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt
 from rest_framework import status, exceptions
-from rest_framework.compat import View
+from rest_framework.compat import View, HttpResponseBase
 from rest_framework.request import Request
 from rest_framework.response import Response
 from rest_framework.settings import api_settings
@@ -244,9 +244,10 @@ class APIView(View):
         Returns the final response object.
         """
         # Make the error obvious if a proper response is not returned
-        assert isinstance(response, HttpResponse), (
-            'Expected a `Response` to be returned from the view, '
-            'but received a `%s`' % type(response)
+        assert isinstance(response, HttpResponseBase), (
+            'Expected a `Response`, `HttpResponse` or `HttpStreamingResponse` '
+            'to be returned from the view, but received a `%s`'
+            % type(response)
         )
 
         if isinstance(response, Response):