George Street Heritage Area

Child Places

• 19282 Residence, 14 George Street

Physical Description

Architectural Character
While the historic architecture within George Street dates from a relatively short period, there is
considerable variety between the buildings spread along its length. They are both timber and masonry,
single and two storeyed, commercial and residential, and original and contemporary structures,
interspersed on an irregular lot arrangement with considerable open spaces occurring in places.
Nonetheless the street presents as a clearly contiguous commercial precinct with a clear historical basis
and physicality appropriate to the residential precinct within which it sits.
At the western end, the very large Harbour Heights apartments predominate, and while of little
architectural relevance to other places in George Street is of some interest in itself as an architectural
and social type, indicating a prior era of a non-heritage based planning approach. A large open space for
associated car parking occupies the area to the east that formerly accommodated a local dairy facility.
Single storey housing to the north side of the road in this vicinity is primarily 1970s in origin, although
including a modified Georgian masonry cottage at the midpoint.
Across Glyde Street, a Victorian limestone cottage in reasonably original condition is perhaps the oldest
surviving structure in the precinct and an important indicator of the Area’s simple origins. Single storey
commercial buildings beyond demonstrate the emergence of commercial operations, with ornamental
parapet shopfronts built hard up to the roadway. The bottle shop/wine bar at the Hubble Street corner
is a particularly flamboyant example, now restored and adapted in a generally sympathetic manner.
This ornament contrasts with the former Semple Building across the road which displays a more
rudimentary architecture clearly developed from an initial residential base. The corner was formerly
enclosed by buildings on all sides, however the south-west corner building has long since been adapted
into a community education facility with a contemporary form set well back from the corner.
Other corner shopfront buildings appear at the Sewell Street intersection, including the more
substantial two storey former Grosser’s Butcher Shop and the flamboyantly detailed single level shop
house on the north-east corner. The juxtaposition between this substantial ornamental limestone
shopfront and its attached rudimentary timber cottage is particularly notable. The use of timber in the
skillion roofed shop-houses occurring between Sewell and King Streets beyond this are also interesting
for their grand allusions overlaying a rudimentary base. None of the buildings in this central portion
retain or have had reconstructed their verandah awnings, somewhat lessening its aesthetic integrity
and visual condition. Other ad-hoc timber cottages appear at various points in the Area, notably to the
south side immediately beyond the Hubble Street corner and between the George Street Mews and
Duke Street corner. These structures add to the diversity, architectural richness and historic readability
of the Street.
Between King and Duke Streets, the streetscape is dominated by terrace housing, with the King Street
Terraces and George Street Mews as two distinct groupings of high compositional and detailing merit.
Both are attributed to prominent Victorian architect Norman Hitchcock, whose idiosyncratic works dot
the Plympton landscape. Their scale and continuity strengthen the streetscape at this end, reinforced
through punctuation at the eastern end by the former Albrecht’s Brush Factory and Royal George Hotel.
The former was probably the first really substantial building in the street, and has a strongly free
classical façade of well-considered monumental proportion and ornamental restraint, and with some
more recent additions extending up Duke Street. The hotel was a grand statement of the confidence
and socially egalitarian basis of the new State of Western Australia, dating from 1903, with finely
considered classical facades surmounted by an octagonal corner cupola that crowns the building and
street at its highpoint. This prominence has been somewhat restricted by the closing of the street by
the Stirling Highway extension beyond, however this has increased its prominence in regard to that
vehicular vista.

An interesting ensemble of mid-20th Century single storey industrial buildings is found between Sewell
and King Streets, now partially converted to warehouse housing. The former Mitchell’s Drycleaners is
an architecturally interesting piece with an idiosyncratic, asymmetric façade and neon signage that adds
character to the street in an appropriate scale and manner.
More recent buildings in George Street are generally multi-storeyed in scale and built hard up to the
road reserve edge in a traditional manner, with simple parapets and awnings. These infill the open
spaces to some extent and reinforce the continuity of the street while at the same time altering its
traditional feel in some respects, on account of both their scale and contemporary detailing. They
variously demonstrate the need for both imagination and restraint in considering the ongoing
development of the Area.

Prevailing Building Typologies
The George Street Heritage Area is laid out as an east-west access spine, central to the Plympton
Precinct. Residential streets run in a north-south fashion from George Street. The George Street
Heritage Area is primarily a commercial street. However, there are some residences, former residences
and former commercial buildings adapted for residential use.
The commercial section contains a mixture of redeveloped pre-World War I buildings and several new
developments. The majority of the redevelopment of this strip has occurred within the past two to
three decades. The existing buildings are comprised primarily of timber, brick and limestone
construction. Commercial premises are predominantly in the Federation Free Classical Style. Generally,
places have been redeveloped sympathetically, with an emphasis on maintaining the character and
established form of the area.
George Street reflects the surrounding streets in both character and scale. George Street also provides
an attractive streetscape with good public amenity. Both the workers’ cottages and commercial
buildings address George Street and are generally built without setbacks. These features contribute
towards creating a very intimate relationship with the street.
The commercial buildings on George Street range from 10-15m in width. The commercial frontage is a
result of new developments, redevelopments and the conversion of existing houses. In some instances
a large frontage to George Street was created from the side elevation of a house on an adjoining
perpendicular street. This activation of the side elevation is a positive development that both increases
the amenity of the street and retains the building’s character, albeit in a modified manner. The corner
buildings are particularly important to the street. They act as mediation between the commercial strip
and the historic residential streets.
The western end of George Street accommodates a nine storey apartment tower (Harbour Heights)
which physically and visually dominates the predominantly one and two storey scale of both East and
George Streets. This late twentieth century building is of modernist/international influences style, and
is socially and representatively significant, however, its merit in terms of aesthetics, rarity and
group/precinct value is relatively low.
The eastern end of the George Street Heritage Area is well defined by the Stirling Highway reservation
and two prominent buildings on the north and south corners of Duke Street, these being the Royal
George Hotel and the Brush Factory, respectively.
The Royal George Hotel is a notable landmark in the Town and a very important townscape element in
the Heritage Area. It is a significant and representative example of a Western Australian gold boom
hotel with much of the original form and fabric intact. The tower and cupola is an increasingly rare
example of a landmark element still in its original form and fabric intact.
The now four-level Brush Factory building is an integral part of the George Street Heritage Area with
exceptional aesthetic value as a good restrained example of the Federation Free Classical style applied
to a commercial building. It was part of the suburban residential development associated with the
expansion of East Fremantle during the Goldrush period of the 1880s and 1890s.
Buildings and places between the west and east end landmarks of the George Street Heritage Area
predominantly comprise of a mix of one and two storey commercial, residential and mixed use
buildings together with a small local park and the infrequent three/four storey development. Overall
the George Street streetscape possesses a high level of visual coherence.

History

The George Street Heritage Area, is generally surrounded by the Plympton
Precinct. It is a cohesive area whereby a majority of the places were constructed
in the late nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century. It is comprised primarily
of commercial buildings with a small number of dwellings for workers and their families.
This Heritage Area is part of a suburban residential development associated with the expansion of
Fremantle, and East Fremantle in particular. The discovery of gold in Western Australia in the 1880s and
1890s resulted in a large and rapid increase in population within the Plympton Precinct area. It
developed during this time to accommodate Fremantle’s growing population of workers and their
families who wanted to live close to their sources of income.
The Area developed integrally with the establishment of the Plympton area when a localised provision
for goods and services was required for the occupants in the vicinity. The establishment of a civic centre
between King and Duke Street led to the development of this part of George Street. By the end of
World War I, the construction of several corner shops had been completed. In 1974, the Stirling Bridge
was built and in 1985 it was extended through to Leach Highway. In the twenty-first century, the
George Street Heritage Area has undergone extensive redevelopment with progressive restoration of
shop fronts and verandahs, the reoccupation of shops, major restoration of significant heritage
buildings and development on vacant portions of heritage sites.

Streetscape
George Street presents as a variegated streetscape, with a range of single and multi-levelled
commercial and residential structures spread along its length in an irregular lot arrangement. This
includes both original historic structures and some more recent infill development, which has been of
generally consistent scale and form, though with a contemporary architectural feel in the main. Most
original buildings remain reasonably intact, although some are deteriorated without awnings and
others have been modified.
The most significant change has occurred at the western end, where the 1970s Harbour Heights highrise block of apartments dominates the entry to the precinct, although this structure is itself somewhat
isolated by its open car parking area located to the east of the building. Opposite this building on the
north side of the street, a corner shop with residential extensions occupies the corner entry point, with
other 1960s buildings or modified structures adjacent through to Glyde Street. Thereafter the historic
precinct becomes more discernible, with a single storey Victorian residence as probably the oldest
surviving structure in the Street. Glasson Park on the south side continues the open feel along to Hubble
Street, from where the more densely built up streetscape to both sides is established.
The built structures are highly individualistic and located on lots with considerable open spaces
between. For a commercial strip this is somewhat unusual, without buildings generally set hard up to
each other. Rudimentary structures sit adjacent to more substantial buildings, with rear yards from
corner premises further variegating the streetscapes. Most new structures are larger mostly two storey
elements, compounding the streetscape effect and to some extent infilling the ‘gaps’ that have
historically existed. The deteriorated nature of some buildings also impacts on the streetscape, though
lending an element of historical integrity to the whole.
The corner buildings are particularly important to the street, punctuating its progress and linking it into
the historic residential streets leading away from it and which they were designed to serve. The visual
/ physical association of corner buildings with those immediately beyond them is important in achieving
this effect and reason for the extension of the Heritage Area into the beginnings of cross streets beyond
George Street itself.

Uses

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.