Fiddler's Cottages

Hitchcock (1919) mentions Fiddler's Cottages as being in Cantonment Street on the corner with Point Street and extending northeast:

The Cantonment-street of fifty years ago need not detain us long. Entering it from Market-street, and traversing the right hand side, there were two or three old cottages between the corner and what is now the site of the Commercial Travellers’ Club, then came the two-storied house which was the residence of the Lloyd family, and which has recently been pulled down to make way for new buildings.

From thence to Point-street there were only three or four small cottages.
Between Point-street and Edward-street were ‘Fiddler’s Cottages’, which are still standing, a vacant allotment, and the school grounds taking up the rest of the frontage.

Fiddler's Cottages, a premises of some kind, was probably never a hotel, tho an application was made in 1892, as follows.

GENERAL PUBLICAN'S LICENSE.

Patrick McCafferty applied for an hotel license for premises situated in Point Street, and known as Fiddler's cottages. Mr. Gawler appeared for the applicant, and Mr. Kidson, on behalf of himself as a ratepayer, and others, to oppose. The applicant stated that he proposed to improve the premises in accordance with plans submitted. The buil ing would contain thirteen rooms when completed. Mr. Kidson based his objections on the ground that there were several places of worship in the neighbourhood of the premises, that licensed premises were not required in the localty and that the proposed site of the hotel was almost opoosite the Church of England parsonage. Farther he submitted that the evidence given by the applicant as to the premises not being at present fit to receive the public, was a bar to the application inasmuch as the words of part of section 18 of the wines and spirits Act were as follows:—"Every house for which a publican's general license should be granted .... shall at the time of the granting of such license contain at least two sitting rooms and two sleeping, actually ready and fit for public accomodation," etc. Mr. Gawler replied by quoting the concluding words of the same section which were as follows :—" But in case on the granting of a certificate for a licence by such justices as aforesaid, it shall appear expedient to grant such certificate upon any other conditions with reference to the extent of accommodation to be afforded to the public in the aforesaid or any other respect it shall be lawful for the said justices to insert such conditions in the certificate for such license." The bench after hearing the arguments decided that a licensed house was not required in the locality, and refused the application. West Australian, 7 December 1892, p. 3.

A case of typhoid was reported from Fiddler's cottages, Point-street. This was attributed to bad water, consequent on the bad situation of the well which it was recommended should be closed. It was recommended that wells should be closed and water laid on from the prison to the cottages, at the back of Capt. Jackson's premises in Point-street, the premises belonging to the estate of the late L. A. Manning, in Cantonment-road, and the premises occupied by Whittle and another in Cantonment-street. This was recommended on the ground that the wells were situated near to cesspits, and were subject to such other influences as would render them unsanitary. West Australian, 31 December 1892, p. 2.

References and Links

West Australian, 7 December 1892, p. 3.

A correspondent has written to suggest that Fiddler's Cottages was a brothel.

Freotopia

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 5 May, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/hotels/fiddlerscottages.html (it was last updated on 28 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.