Raffles Hotel, Perth
| Raffles Hotel | |
|---|---|
The Raffles Hotel in Applecross, Perth
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| General information | |
| Type | Hotel |
| Architectural style | Inter-War Functionalist/Art-deco |
| Location | Applecross, Western Australia |
| Coordinates | 32°00′39″S 115°51′06″E / 32.0108°S 115.8517°ECoordinates: 32°00′39″S 115°51′06″E / 32.0108°S 115.8517°E |
| Completed | 1896 |
| Renovated | 1937, 2007, 2015 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 2 |
| Renovating team | |
| Architect | William G. Bennett |
Raffles Hotel is located at the corner of Canning Highway and Canning Beach Road in the Perth suburb of Applecross, Western Australia. It is a two-storey hotel designed in the Inter-War Functionalist style and is one of the few examples of a hotel in this style surviving in the Perth metropolitan area. Earlier named the Canning Bridge Hotel, it has operated continuously as a licensed hotel since at least 1896. For over 50 years until 2002, it was owned by Australian nightclub owner and property developer Abe Saffron, whose plan to demolish the hotel was successfully opposed by the Art Deco Society of Western Australia in a ten-year campaign.
The location of Canning Bridge on the road from Fremantle to Perth and Guildford made it a suitable location for accommodation and refreshments. In January 1850 the first Canning Bridge was constructed and soon after, on 4 May, a liquor licence was granted to a Samuel Duffield, owner of the Bridge Inn of Canning. It is not known where that inn was located but it was possibly a predecessor of the 1896 Canning Bridge Hotel, near the bridge on its western (Applecross) side—which was remodelled in 1937 as the present Raffles Hotel.
The Canning Bridge Hotel was a single-storey structure with a high, gabled roof. Beside it stood a pavilion with a dance hall on the upper floor and refreshment rooms below. The hotel provided a venue for many social and sporting groups such as the W.A. Hunt Club. The hotel was also used by the East Fremantle District Road Board for its first council meeting on 22 March 1901.
This building was extensively upgraded in 1937, with a distinctive Art Deco facade designed by architect William G. Bennett, to coincide with the construction of the current bridge and the upgrading of Canning Highway. The building was renamed the Raffles Hotel after the renowned Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The facade, and in particular the nature and placement of the forward extension of the hotel, reveals a conscious effort on the part of the architect to respect the importance of the newly constructed Applecross District Hall to the community and its streetscape value.
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