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Lysaght building
8 Pakenham Street, 1929, corner of Short Street
In 1929 a warehouse designed by Joseph Allen for Lysaght was built on the site of the former Manning's Hall. (It could also have been called the Halco building after its most recent tenant before its virtual demolition.) Only the facade has been retained after its rebuilding as serviced apartments in 2016.
Manning's Folly, built 1858 for Charles Alexander Manning (1807-1869), was originally intended as a sanatorium for officers invalided from the Indian Army—one of Stirling’s arguments for establishing the colony was that it could serve as a rest and recreation centre for service officers and civil servants in India, but none took advantage of Manning’s venture. Manning, who was Chairman of the Fremantle Town Trust (1859-67), had a privated domed observatory on the roof, where he indulged in his hobby of astronomy. He founded the Fremantle Volunteer Defence Force in 1861, and died eight years later.
Later the building was occupied by Wallace Bickley, a prominent landowner and businessman, then Tolley & Co, wine merchants. It was condemned by the Council in 1928 and subsequently demolished.
The following year, Allen & Nicholas Architects built a warehouse on the site for John Lysaght (Australia) Ltd, manufacturers of goods including corrugated iron sheets. The same architects carried out alterations in 1946, and also in the 1970s. In 1960-63 the rate books show Patrick Stevedoring taking over the building from Lysaghts. Hobbs Winning Leighton & Partners drew up plans for Patrick Stevedoring WA Pty Ltd building in 1975.
In 2002 the building was Halco - The Australian Lure Company. 'Since 1950' on the façade refers to the company, not the building.
Significance:
The place is [was] a modest example of a commercial building dating from the first decades of the twentieth century that forms part of a group of similar places and makes a contribution to the Fremantle Town Centre streetscape. The place is a fine, substantially intact, example of a Federation Warehouse style building that makes a significant contribution to the streetscape.
Physical Description:
Two storey corner building, with a zero setback from the pavement, rendered over the corner section and face brick return There is an a unadorned parapet and a corner pediment above the truncation, sided by 'Halco since 1950' written. There are multi-paned windows and driving entrances in the face brick section on the building.
There have been some modifications to doors and windows replaced.
The 77-apartment building Quest Apartments now on the site. The Lysaght building in the top photo has been gutted, and only some of the facade retained.
The photograph of the almost completed apartment building is from then mayor Brad Pettitt's blog post for 24 October 2016, which explains that the artwork on the corner, 'Folly of Follies', by Loreena Grant, is meant to refer to Manning's building.
The completed building in 2021 (now available) in a photo courtesy of Roel Loopers.
Skip Watkins' 1985 photo showing the Robert Harper building with the Lysaght/Halco building to the left.
References and Links
Heritage Council entry for 'warehouse, 8 Pakenham Street'. Much of the text above is from that page.
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 28 December, 2014 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/lysaght.html (it was last updated on 1 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.