Cleopatra Hotel

Author

City of Fremantle

Place Number

00910

Location

24 High St Fremantle

Location Details

Local Government

Fremantle

Region

Metropolitan

Construction Date

Constructed from 1907

Demolition Year

N/A

Statutory Heritage Listings

Type Status Date Documents
Heritage List YES 08 Mar 2007

Heritage Council Decisions and Deliberations

Type Status Date Documents
(no listings)

Other Heritage Listings and Surveys

Type Status Date Grading/Management
Category
Register of the National Estate Permanent 21 Mar 1978
Classified by the National Trust Classified 28 Oct 1974
Statewide Hotel Survey Completed 01 Nov 1997
Municipal Inventory Adopted 18 Sep 2000 Level 1B

Statement of Significance

The place is historically significant as hotel representing the development of Fremantle’s Old Port City from the gold boom period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The place is a fine example of a Federation Free Classical style building, with elaborate stucco decoration above the ground floor level, that makes a significant contribution to the streetscape. The place is of social significance as evidenced by its classification by the National Trust.

Physical Description

Two storey hotel with highly decorative façade and parapet featuring 'Hotel Cleopatra Hotel' in the stucco pediment. The façade on the centre of the ground floor and the first floor has banded piers and three stucco archways each forming a loggia. The ground floor has a concave bays with pairs of glazed doors below multi-paned transom lights on the left and windows on the right of the façade. There is a pair of double hung sash windows, stucco arched keystone and decorative skirts either side of the first floor loggia.

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 trialled in November 1973 and made a permanent pedestrian mall in 1975. The first hotel on this site was the Crown and Thistle built in the early 1850’s by the Francisco family. The Francisco family sold the property to Pearse and Owston in 1880. Captain E.H. Fothergill leased it from Pearse and Owston in May 1881, renovated it and named it the Cleopatra after a ship he owned. Fothergill was licensee of the hotel from 1882 and owner from the early 1890’s – 1896 when he died at the hotel. Ownership was taken over by the Swan Brewery 1906. The building was demolished and architect J.H. Eales was employed to design a new hotel on the site of the original. The work was completed in August 1907. In 1985 more than $50,000 was spent on renovations and it was renamed the Auld Mug Tavern. A fire gutted the second storey in 1988. 1993-1997 name changed to the West End Hotel 1997 name changed to Coakley’s. Came up for sale 2001. The Edmund Rice Centre (affiliated with Notre Dame University) bought the building in Nov 2001.

Condition

Fair.

Associations

Name Type Year From Year To
J H Eales Architect 1907 -

State Heritage Office library entries

Library Id Title Medium Year Of Publication
1008 Interiors project : Old Cleopatra Hotel now West End Hotel 24 High St Report 1992

Place Type

Individual Building or Group

Uses

Epoch General Specific
Present Use OTHER Other
Present Use COMMERCIAL Hotel, Tavern or Inn
Original Use COMMERCIAL Hotel, Tavern or Inn

Architectural Styles

Style
Federation Free Classical

Construction Materials

Type General Specific
Wall BRICK Rendered Brick
Wall STONE Limestone
Wall METAL Corrugated Iron
Wall BRICK Common Brick

Historic Themes

General Specific
OCCUPATIONS Hospitality industry & tourism
SOCIAL & CIVIC ACTIVITIES Sport, recreation & entertainment

Creation Date

30 May 1989

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Approved

Last Update

26 Feb 2020

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.