Lockridge Hotel

1896, Clarence Wilkinson, E.H. Dean Smith

At 1 River St Bassendean; also known as the Salvation Army Aged Men's Retreat (Riversleigh House); bounded by Eighth Avenue, Anzac Terrace and River Street - aka 5 Eighth Avenue and 20 Anzac Terrace; aka Lockridge Private Hospital, Lockridge Hotel, Miss Bailey's Girls High School, Riverside Lodge; constructed from 1896, 1970, 1980

What immediately follows is authored by Town of Bassendean and taken from the Heritage Council website.

Statement of Significance
The following statement is drawn from the entry prepared for its inclusion in the State Register of Heritage Places in 2001. Success Hill Lodge, comprising a double-storey brick and iron building constructed in 1896 (c.1970s, 1980s) in the Federation Queen Anne style, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• the place is a fine, largely intact example of the Federation Queen Anne style and is the focus of a precinct of predominantly single storey residential and commercial premises;
• the place contributes to the local community's sense of place by its
• landmark quality in a residential area, and for its early history as a hotel with a colourful reputation;
• the place was constructed in 1896 as the Lockeridge Hotel in a suburb that was developing as a result of the rapid population growth caused by the gold boom. The site was chosen in an effort to take advantage of the holiday traffic on the Swan River and the Fremantle-Guildford railway line;
• the place has been associated with various branches of health care for much of its existence, having been a hospital in 1903, 1912-1914 and 1965-1973, aged men's home 1918-1947, and a psychiatric hostel since the early 1980s;
• the place was associated with the Salvation Army as part of their social welfare program, specifically the care of aged men and, to a lesser extent women, from 1918 to 1947;
• the place is valued by the local and wider community for its ongoing associations with health care, and its earlier associations with aged care and education; and,
• the original hotel building was designed by Clarence Wilkinson and E.H. Dean-Smith, who were in an architectural partnership from 1895 to 1900 and designed a number of residential and commercial premises in Perth and Fremantle during this time.
Physical Description
Success Hill Lodge is located on River Street with the main street fronts facing Anzac Terrace to the south and River Street to the east, with rear access and side view on Eighth Avenue to the west. The place comprises the original two storey building with attached single storey kitchen and verandah (1896), two periods of single storey extensions (c.1970s, 1980s). The rendered, two storey building is located on prominent corner site. The render is a later addition to the original face brick construction. The building was designed to take account of its corner position with a wing to each street elevation and angled central corner section incorporating the verandah and balcony. The complex roof system consisting of hipped and gabled elements is clad in short sheet CGI with a small timbered gablet above the chamfered corner elevation. The balcony canopy is part of the main roof, supported on timber columns to both levels. Timber framed sash windows. A well planted garden is enclosed by timber picket fence. The single storey painted brick additions constructed in the 1970s and 1980s adjoins the western elevation of the original building. The addition have contrasting roof forms, the 1970s addition is low pitched at about 5 degrees and clad with metal deck sheeting. The 1980s addition behind is a hipped roof pitched at approximately 45 degrees also clad in long sheets of Colorbond metal deck sheeting.
History
Success Hill Lodge was built for Herbert Ernest Parry as the Lockeridge Hotel, to a design by architects Clarence Wilkinson and E. H. Dean-Smith in 1896. The first landlord of the hotel was Charles Pressentin. The hotel was intended to gain the patronage of picnic boating parties but it was not a successful venture and several licensees took on the property in its first years. It ceased to operate as a hotel in 1902 and since that time has been, a hospital on three separate occasions, a girl's boarding school, Salvation Army men's home, a residence, and a psychiatric hostel. Success Hill Lodge was extended on the western elevation on at least two occasions, c.1970s and 1980s, to provide accommodation for residents and staff when the place operated as a psychiatric hospital. During the later works the original face brick work of the main building was rendered. The site originally included two timber cottages on the northern side of the original hotel however the original landholding was subdivided and these two cottages were demolished c2004. The place is currently [2015] used as a family home.

Sir Paul Hasluck lived here as a child, c. 1917-19. He was the son of Salvationists:

Hasluck:
The Aged Men’s Retreat at Guildford was a rather large two-storey building standing in about ten acres of ground close to the Swan River and near to Success Hill. There were about sixty old men, some pensioners, some supported by relatives and some maintained by charity.
My memories were mostly pleasant. We had private quarters of our own and a domestic staff and, as ‘manager’s children’, we were treated fondly by them.

The 'Success Hill Lodge' received $40k in the state government's heritage grants program in 2021.

References and Links

Carter, Jennie 1986, Bassendean: A Social History 1829-1979, Bassendean Town Council.

Hasluck, Paul 1977, Mucking About, MUP.

Heritage Council page.

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 23 November, 2016 and hosted at freotopia.org/hotels/lockridge.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.