Mount Hawthorn Hotel (fmr)

Statement of Significance

Paddington Ale House (former Mount Hawthorn Hotel) is a fine example of an Interwar Free Classical style, and a late work of Michael Cavanagh, which has been sympathetically modelled in the Late 20th Century Post Modern style to bring the facilities up to contemporary standards. It is a landmark on a prominent corner location. It has associations with the Monaghan family, prominent hoteliers, Cavanagh & Cavanagh, notable architects, and H A Doust, a respected builder of the period.

Physical Description

Two storey hotel with decorated parapet walls, framing cantilevered eaves to bedrooms and verandahs. The corner parapet features a heavy arched corbel, edged with dentils. The ground floor windows and doorways are arched, with keystones, and the arches have stucco surrounds. The bay either side of the corner doorway retains its dado tiling. In 1987 the hotel was refurbished keeping its side and corner façade intact, however, the main façade to Scarborough Beach Road was opened up, in keeping with contemporary needs for transparency and openness to al fresco areas. The ground floor tavern was opened with french doors set under shallow arches. The upstairs function rooms were opened to balconies with light metal balustrading. The Scarborough Beach Road entrance includes spectacular coloured leadlight in the arches. Zero setbacks to both streets and corner truncation Refurbishment of 1987.

History

Scarborough Beach Road was originally named North Beach Road. It was changed to Scarborough Beach Road circa 1947. Fairfield Street, the secondary street to the hotel was previously known as Ilma Street. By the 1930s, the area of Mount Hawthorn around North Beach Road had developed to the extent that a hotel was considered a reasonable addition to the district. The site was on a main thoroughfare and the the tram route between Perth, Leederville and Osborne Park. Joseph Monahgan bought the block from Henry Prisk Gartrell, a draper and Councillor for North Perth for £900. Monaghan was born in Ireland circa 1860 and arrived in WA in 1863 in response to the gold discoveries. In 1896 he was in Perth and bought the lease on the Queen's Hotel in Beaufort Street. After four years there, followed by a stint in Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie, he moved to Fremantle and then to Perth, on each occasion with an involvement with a hotel. In 1930 when he bought the subject site for a hotel he was living in retirement in Grosvenor Road, North Perth. Michael Cabavaugh of the architectural firm Cavanagh & Cavanagh designed the hotel for Monaghan in 1931. Tenders were then called and that of R. V. Ritchie was accepted, but the work did not go ahead for some reason. Tenders were recalled in April 1932, and the contract was awarded to H. A. Doust with a quote of £9,915. Personal reasons called Joseph Monaghan to sell soon after construction and had begun in 1932 and Alfred (Pop) Gillam bought it from him for £950. Gillam had previously leased the Commonwealth Hotel (Hyde Park Hotel) but sold up there and bought the Mount Hawthorn site are partially built the hotel in 1932. When it was finished it was known as the Mount Hawthorn Hotel. One outstanding feature and focal point of the finished hotel was the jarrah staircase in the front hallway. This was built by carpenter Edward (Ted) Anwyll Edwards 'whose speciality was staircases' (Melva Edwards daughter). He was employed by Millars timbers. The hotel was listed in the Wise's Post Office Directories in 1933 with a Mr Gillans name attached and Mrs Luch E. Sewell, 'ladies outfitter' was listed next door, first listed in 1928. In 1949, the last year of the Directories, W Green, one of Gillams partners was listed as the licensee. There was four partners in all: Mrs W. Green (Mrs Gillam's sister), Mrs Gillam, Pop Gillam and Bill Hartley (Mrs Gillams' brother) and Les Green (Mrs Greens' husband) who all ran the hotel. At that time 'Pop' and Mrs Gillam and the Greens were living at the hotel. It is possible that the Gillam's son Hartley was also residing there at the time. Betty, the Gillam's daughter, also lived there with her husband Mick Beghan for two years while building their own home in Mount Hawthorn. Mick polished the bar floors and did other jobs to earn his keep. (Mick Bergham). Twelve bedrooms were required under the Licensing Act but in fact, 21 were constructed upstairs. There were also bathrooms alongside, with three or four showers in a row, and a lounge room at the front. There was parking space at the rear and about six garages. According to the City of Perth building licence cards alterations were carried out to the hotel in 1956 and an open-air beer garden was also added. In 1961 there were internal alterations and a glass enclosure and in 1962 an enclosure to the beer garden. In 1970 a games room was acded and some further alterations were carried out in 1975. From 1960 Mick Bergham's name appears as one of the applicants on the licence carsds bu the name of the applicant for the 1974 work was indecipherable. The Gillam family group sold the hotel around 1975 for approximately £30,000; around this time Mr Vanstone was the licensee. In 1984 the hotel applied for and received an extended trading permit allowing it to trade to 1.00am at weekends. Renovations were carried out in 1896 which included the white painted exterior walls being changed to light blue. The applicant on this occasion was Mr Swanson. In these years, as was the case with many of the older inner-city hotels, the hotel bedrooms were no longer utilised by travellers and they instead provided cheap accommodation and meals for permanent residents, generally single men. The hosting of the America's Cup yacht race in 1987 resulted in a general upgrading of recreational facilities throughout the metropolitan area in preparation for this event, and the Mount Hawthorn Hotel was refurbished as the Paddington Ale House in 1987. In 1999 $800,000 was spent on the redevelopment of the courtyard on Scarborough Beach Road, opening the hotel onto the street, plus the demolition of old additions at the rear and the construction of a new sports bay where popular sporting events could be televised and concerts could also be held. In 2002 the exterior of the hotel was repainted mustard brown, dark brown and green. That same year the shop adjacent to the hotel at No. 147 Scarborough Beach road once Miss L Sewell's drapery and haberdashery opened as Paddington Fine Wines. A history of the hotlel by author Valerie Everett was also produced to mark the hotel's 70th anniversary. This was entitled 'Seventy Years of Cheers! A history of the Paddington Ale House' 1932 - 2002. In 2005 permission was granted for the patron numbers to be increased from 400 to 470. Alfreso dining on Scarborough Beach Road had previously been approved and the number of patrons allowed in that section was also increased by 10 in 2005. At this time new bi-fold doors were installed at the front by Oldfield Knott Architects Pty Ltd to allow easy access to the alfreso area.

Integrity/Authenticity

Mostly intact

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

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