Albany Bell Castle

Child Places

• 16303 John Gregory's Farm (archaeological site)

Statement of Significance

This place is representative of the commercial development of the region, providing an unusual and attractive example of a factory setting. It has a historic association with Peter Albany Bell and the Bell family, who were influential members of the community. The site is a significant landmark feature along Guildford Road.

Physical Description

The place is set well back into its landscape and is a prominent landmark building. It is a building that takes a simple functional use and clads it in an elaborately detailed decorative skins of red brick and rendered embellishments in the form of castellations, quoins, battlements and prominent corner towers.

History

The building has a strong association with Mr Albany Bell, an important manufacturer and philanthropist in the early years of the 20th century, when Western Australia lagged behind the other States in developing urban industries. The Albany Bell Castle was built for Mr Alabny Bell's company and was designed by Mr Alexander Cameron of Wright Powell and Cameron. It is understood that the builder was J Hawkins and Sons. The Albany Bell Castle was originally constructed as a factory supplying cakes and confectionery to Bell's chains of
tearooms located in Perth, Fremantle, Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie. The idea behind the design of the factory was to give employees the nice surroundings in which they would work instead of the terrible industrial housing that had developed in England.

The factory itself was built in two stages. The first stage of two wing buildings was built in 1914. The north wing was a single storey bakehouse with an oven projecting from it and fireboxes in the cellar below. The south wing was double storey, the ground floor housing freezer rooms. The second stage was completed in 1919, it being the central block built across the front of the two existing wings.

Mr Albany Bell sold his interest in the business in 1928 and since this time the place has had successive owners and uses. It has been a chicken hatchery, a reserve building for WA Newspapers in case its St George's Tce premises were bombed during the war, and offices of the Department of Transport. In addition, several editions of the daily news were printed there.
In more recent years, the building has been gutted and redeveloped for residential apartments. This redevelopment ensured that the façade of the building remained intact, maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the external building.

Integrity/Authenticity

The integrity and authenticity of the exterior is high, however given the many changes in use of the interiors and the redevelopment associated with these changes, the integrity and authenticity of the interior is low.

Condition

Good

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.