| Streets: | |
|---|---|
| Wikidata: | Q66974968 |
| inHerit: | 22561 |
-32.055505, 115.746656 | |



The building on the southern corner of Market Street and Bannister Street is 85–87 Market Street. It is known as the building of A.E. Davies & Co., funeral directors, but has had other uses before and after that firm's occupancy.
This site was owned by Amalia Dixon in 1880, when there were a residence and two cottages on the site. She owned the property until 1900; her trustees owned it until 1920 and they owned it in partnership with J.J. Holmes until 1931.
In 1883 the rate books listed a new shop, almost certainly the existing building, and Amalia Dixon was recorded as the shopkeeper. The properties had various lessees over following years. By c.1894 the lessees were butchers,[2] Reen and Headley, to be Followed, in 1896, by another firm of butchers, Baker and Stevens. In 1898 a third firm of butchers, Holmes Brothers, were occupants; they remained until 1910-11. In the 1920s there was an auction room, possibly in part of the building. The Funeral directors, A.E. Davies and Co., were in the building from 1921, and in 1958 commissioned substantial alterations, which concealed some of the original facade.
Another firm of funeral directors, Bowra and O’Dea, took over from A.E. Davies and were there from 1982 to 2004. When they left, the building was restored — to what appears, from a photograph, to be its original condition — revealing the elaborate brick and stucco facade. The awning is unusual for Fremantle, being markedly curved and supported on decorative iron brackets. The restoration was under the direction of John Kirkness.
In 2025 the miniseries Reckless used the building as a filming location.
[TODO – Add this image: http://catalogue.slwa.wa.gov.au/record=b5848015]
References
- ↑ b3723379 Market Street, Fremantle, State Library of Western Australia
- ↑ State Heritage Office, place number 22561.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 18 July, 2016 and hosted at freotopia.org/streets/market.html (it was last updated on 11 November, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.
