Union Bank (fmr)

Statement of Significance

The place is historically significant as a former bank representing the development of Fremantle’s Old Port City as a centre of commerce and trade from the gold boom period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The place is significant because, when viewed from the street, it is a substantially intact example of a federation period commercial building which contributes to the very significant Old Port City of Fremantle. The place is of social significance as evidenced by its classification by the National Trust.

Physical Description

Two storey smooth rendered and Colorbond roofed building with balustraded parapet and a former chapel sited on the west side of the 1889 building. The original building has a truncated corner entrance and a decorative stucco gable edged with stucco brackets above pilasters, and a recessed arched doorway with a fanlight and a timber and glass door. There are arched timber double hung sash windows on the ground floor and double hung sash windows with stucco architraves and three arched windows at rear of building on the first floor. The former chapel comprises a single storey painted brick building, with a low-pitched hipped tile roof and simple crenelation cornice. The west side of the façade features a mitred hip roof and a brick inbuilt cross above the arched entrance with two tongue and groove timber doors with large exposed hinges. The facade also has three metal-framed arch windows.

History

High Street was named by Surveyor General Roe - as was customary in English towns, the main street of the town was named High Street. Eastward from William Street the roadway was completed by convict labour after the Town Hall was built in 1887. High Street around the Town Hall closed to traffic in 1966. The High Street Mall was trialed in November 1973 and made a permanent pedestrian mall in 1975. Designed by W. E. Robertson of Melbourne and completed in 1889, the Union Bank was one of the first banks to establish a major building in the west end of Fremantle. The bank bought the land in 1881. In 1930/1 the bank moved further east down High Street and the Flying Angel mission of seamen moved into its old premises. In 1937 a chapel was built alongside the former bank which functioned for the following 30 years. In 1955 alterations and additions to the building were approved by Council. In 1974 the facade of the former bank was Classified by the National Trust. Currently (2002), commercial, although not in use.

Condition

Good/Fair

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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