Richmond Hotel

1866-1937-1965, Lot 286, Cantonment Road, later 193 Victoria Road, later 193 Queen Victoria Street. Renamed Bridge Hotel in 1937 to avoid confusion with a beer of the same name then being marketed in WA. Demolished 1965.

Rowing Club history page:
The Richmond Hotel was built at the top of Putney Road, which led up to Queen Victoria Street from the riverside level, where it slaked the thirst of rowing crews for many years. The licensee was Frederick Caesar, who had arrived on the Strathmore in 1871. It was later renamed Bridge Hotel and Ted Hoare was publican. Eventually the hotel was demolished at the time of the upriver development of the harbour. (Rowing Club history page)

This is the original building, 'The Cottage', which Caesar used as the first Richmond Hotel.

Fremantle Library:
The Richmond Hotel was situated in Cantonment Road, facing Cantonment (Signal Station) Hill. 'The Cottage' (1860s) was used for recreational purposes by Mr Fred Caesar from 1878 while he conducted the Emerald Isle (later Orient) Hotel in High Street. About 1884, Mr Caesar applied for a Wayside House license. The ideal location next to the traffic bridge led to the erection of a larger building and a general Public House license. In 1900 the premises were completely rebuilt as the Richmond (later Bridge) Hotel. Fremantle Library photo no. 958 c. 1891 Cantonment Street.

Looking up Putney Road, which was removed before the construction of the current Railway Bridge c. 1960, towards the second incarnation of the Richmond Hotel. This photo (RWAHS R5372) is reproduced in John Dowson's book Old Fremantle, p. 191, where his caption is as follows.

John Dowson:
Rural scene between Cantonment Hill and the river, c1900. At the top of the rise is the Richmond Hotel, later the Bridge Hotel, originally a single-storey building built by convict labour. The hotel opened in 1866 [1888], the same year as the passenger bridge nearby. In 1884 the hotel obtained a wayside liquor licence, after which it became the hub of social and sporting activities, in particular a meeting-place for horse-riding parties. The hotel was at 193-197 Queen Victoria Street, until 1922 known as Victoria Road, and before that Cantonment Street. In 1937 the name was changed to Bridge Hotel to avoid confusion with Richmond Beer, which was by then being sold in Western Australia. The first beer garden in Fremantle with a commanding view of the river, it closed on 31 December 1964.

Library:
Postcard published by P. Falk. The [earlier] Railway Bridge is in the centre background with the North shore of the river behind. On the right side is the Richmond Hotel (known as the Bridge Hotel from about 1940). This hotel was demolished in May 1965. Fremantle Library photo no. 1418 c1900 photographer P. Falk, taken from Cantonment Hill area.

The railway bridge in 1900 was much further west, down harbour, than the present one, which comes to this southern shore just to the right (in the photo) of where the Richmond/Bridge Hotel stood.

The Bridge Hotel cropped out of a 1959 panorama taken from Cantonment Hill. The older railway bridge is still in use (at the top), but the groundworks for the new (present) one can be seen on the right of the photo. The hotel is doomed. I have no source for this excellent photo. I'd be glad to be able to give the credit.

Library:
The Bridge Hotel was originally the Richmond. In 1893, Frederick Caesar was the Proprietor and in 1897 he transferred the licence to James H Roger. In 1904 Fred T Pamment took over. The address was 193-197 Queen Victoria Street, by the traffic bridge. In 1939/1940 the name changed to the Bridge Hotel.

The ferry Reliance on the Swan River, the Richmond Hotel in the background, c.1905. Photo from SLWA, no. 006490D.

References and Links

Dowson, John 2003, Old Fremantle: Photographs 1850-1950, UWAP.

Graham, Allen 2023, Inns and Outs of Fremantle: a Social History of Fremantle and its Hotels 1829-1856, XLibris.

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 20 September, 2014 and hosted at freotopia.org/hotels/richmond.html (it was last updated on 6 December, 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.