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Claremont Hotel
The Claremont Hotel, corner Gugeri Street (Humble Street until 1894) and Bay View Terrace, was previously known as McManus's Hotel, Fink's Hotel, the Redrock, and - confusingly - the Continental (as there had been a Continental Hotel in Victoria Avenue until 1970). According to an article in the West Australian, the hotel began trading in 1886. According to the Heritage Council (below) the current building dates from 1902.
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Massey's store, 1898. The 'vote for' signs relate to the first municipal elections.
This is not the hotel above, but a store on the site where it would be later, on the corner of what was then Humble Street (named after Fremantle Town Clerk and schoolmaster George Bland Humble}. Bolton & Gregory (42) suggest the shop was built in 1886, when the station was established across the road, by Margaret McMullan. It was taken over by a railway porter called Edward Massey, and it's his name on the corner veranda in the photograph. He was also the postmaster, operating there from 1893. He applied for a hotel licence in 1894 but his plan was rejected due to opposition from 'a group of ratepayers led by Horace Stirling'. (63)
In the 1990s, the hotel was seen as the centre of the activities and therefore hunt for the Claremont Serial Killer, after the deaths of three women in 1996-7 who had been partying either at the hotel or at Club Bayview on St Quentin's Avenue.
Mingor 2013:
The Claremont Hotel on the corner of Bay View Terrace and Gugeri Street. When built in 1902, it was called the Family and Commercial Hotel. It became the Fink Hotel in 1912, named after the then licensee, Karl Fink. Up until a few years ago the hotel was known as the Continental Hotel. The hotel verandah was demolished in 1953 but rebuilt some years later. April 2013. Photos Ref: CLMT007.
Heritage Council:
History
In 1894, Edward Massey is recorded as storekeeper and postmaster here. His two-storey stone store and bakery was built on the site and in 1902 he acquired a publican's license. The store is supposed to have been demolished for the new Hotel Claremont that was built about this time, but there may have been some of Massey's store included in the Hotel building, as early photographs of the two buildings indicate a similar roofline visible above the surrounding verandahs. In 1903-04, the Hotel was listed in the Rate Books under the ownership of S. W. Copley and the publican was W. J. Jackson. Karl Fisk was the hotelkeeper by 1910. The place was later known as McManus' Hotel during the occupation of a later publican. In the late 1930s, two new art-deco style hotels were built in the Claremont area, allowing Hotel Claremont to continue as the village pub. With the redevelopment of the shopping precinct and the growth of the café lifestyle in the late 1980s and the 1990s, the Hotel went from local pub to trendy meeting place. It has at various times been known as Cagney's on the Terrace, the Continental and the Redrock. Considerable upgrading and alterations to the Hotel over the years, including removal and reconstruction of the double-height verandahs, has considerably altered the building.
Physical Description
The double storey, painted brick, hotel occupies a corner with an expansive truncation at the intersection. The ground floor frontages feature arched door and window openings. The double storey verandah is symmetrical with three bays to Bayview Terrace, the corner truncation and Gugeri Street respectively. The ground floor of the verandah has simple bracketed posts with elegant curved valance with vertical spaced timber infills that form brackets. The first floor verandah is entirely enclosed along the external perimeter, inside the vertical spaced timber balustrade. The verandah seems to have a Colorbond clad skillion roof. The main roof is hipped with a facet across the truncation, and a simple gable to Gugeri Street. Tall face brick chimneys with vertical stucco detail and deep moulded corbels are distinctive in the skyline.
Considerable Contribution: It is a distinctive example of a Federation Filigree hotel in Claremont, located in the historically significant location opposite the railway station. The social significance and sense of place add to the significance of the form and function of the historic place.
References and Links
Christian, Bret, 2021, Stalking Claremont, ABC Books, Harpers Collins, Sydney.
Wikipedia page for Claremont serial killings.
Bottom photo by Mingor, 2013.
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 9 May, 2019 and hosted at freotopia.org/hotels/claremont.html (it was last updated on 25 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.