Lot 56, no. 1 Henry Street (formerly 38), built 1853, demolished 1958.
Oliver Lodge's Castle Hotel was the premises of the (first) Fremantle Club, and then the Fremantle Workers Club, before being demolished (by the FWC) in 1956. It may have been the first three-storey building in Fremantle and possibly in the colony/state. Tuckfield has Lodge as licensee in 1853, Erickson 1854, giving possible dates for the construction of the building.
Tuckfield:
Then in 1853 I find that Oliver Lodge was licensee of the Castle Hotel in Henry Street, Whether the two places were the same building under two names I know not [they were], but at the turn of the century the building became the Fremantle Workers Club. Tuckfield 1975: 100.
This hotel was prominent on the skyline in a panoramic photo by Stephen Stout. It is shown on an 1885 map* as being on Town Lot 56, the second from the NW corner of what is now Phillimore Street.
Stout opened his photographer's studio in 1864 in Henry St 'opposite the late Castle Hotel' (Dowson: 84) probably meaning that the building was no longer being used as a hotel by the time those words were published in an advertisement in the West Australian: 4 August 1864.
Lodge's Hotel soon lost its licence. It first was used as a private house, and then became a school for young ladies until 1880, then a private hotel 1884-6, and then the (first) Fremantle Club, an organisation serving the needs of Fremantle businessmen, 1887-1912. After the Fremantle Club moved on, the building was available for the use of the Fremantle Workers Club, which purchased it in 1916 (previously thought to be 1914) from the AMP Society for £2000.
Mr Lodge built a three-storied hotel on Lot 56 Henry St (no. 1) '(before 1869)', according to the Fremantle Times, but: 'it was not a financial success being on too ambitious a scale for the times. By 1869 it was the private residence of WD Moore, and in 1919 was the Workers Club'. Fremantle Times, 2 May 1919, as typed out on a sheet in FHC Folder 367. Note: the Workers Club was in the building from 1914 onwards, as tenant, not owner.
The Workers Club gained a purpose-built building at 7-9 Henry St from 1956, and the Lodge's Hotel building was demolished in 1958 to provide a carpark for Workers members. There was a plan to have a 'cabaret ballroom' building above the carpark, but it did not eventuate, and the Club sold the site to NDU, and it continues to be one of their carparks.
From my publicans page:
Oliver Lodge was the licensee of Lodge's Hotel, aka the Castle, which then became W.D. Moore's house, then a school, then a private hotel, then the (first) Fremantle Club, and lastly the Workers Club (from 1914), which demolished it [!] in 1958. It was on Lot 56, (now) 1 Henry Street (formerly no. 38), now an NDU carpark. Possibly the first three-storey building in the state. An 'innkeeper and clerk' called Oliver Lodge died 5 August 1865 aged 45 of 'fits' and was buried by G.J. Bostock, presumably therefore in the Anglican section of the Skinner Street Cemetery. Two Lodge children died in infancy in 1850 and 1854, one of them, Mary Alice, recorded as being the daughter of a 'hotel-keeper'.
From the Mirror, 24 January 1925: 12:
FROM HIGHBROWS TO WORKERS
Fremantle Club’s History
Once the Resort of Titled Exclusives—Now The Rendezvous, of Brawny Toilers—A Queer Metamorphosis
IMAGINE Bill Bowyangs resting his dungareed legs in the inviting depths of the Weld Club lounge!
Imagine the present haven of wealth and social distinction, so far forgetting its destiny as to turn over its handsome premises to the workers.
It would take some imagining!
But there is extant a similar case where a club, once as exclusive and restricted to the men of long purses, has since passed into the hands of the workers.
What the Weld Club is to Perth today, the old Fremantle Club was to the Port. Housed in a fine three-storey buiilding—the first in Fremantle—beautifully furnished and carpeted, its Chinese service a thing ... privileges of memberhip were restricted to a select few.
Amont its memebers during the ealy years of the century were the late A. J, Diamond, MLA, Messrs Laurie Alexander, Frank Cadd, Sir ...
1880-1883 owner Mr Gregor; tenants:
1880 Cowan (ladies school) house and school
1881 Geo Spencer Compton (clerk-magistrate) dwelling house etc.
1882 GS Compton, dwelling house lots 56 1/3 and 57
1883 Sandover and Mayhew (merchants) business premises and offices lots 56 1/3 and 57
1884-5 owner WE Marmion; tenant:
1884 HR Alvarenga (cook) dwelling house and warehouse lots 56 1/3 and 57
1885 HR Alvarenga [crossed out] (eating house, private hotel) coffee palace and outbuildings
1886-1897 owner Wm Edward Marmion and Robert Sholl; tenant:
1886 Marmion and Sholl (house pro.) coffee palace and outbuildings
1887-1897 Fremantle Club
1898-1912 owner Fremantle Club
1913-6 owner AMP Society; tenant:
1913 none (dwelling)
1914-6 Workers Social and Leisure Club (Club premises)
1916-1981 owner Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Hour Club Inc.; tenant:
1916-7 Workers Social and Leisure Hour Club (Club premises No. 19)
1919-20 Workers Social and Leisure Hour Club (Club premises No. 19)
1930-1 Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Hour Club Alfred Joseph Gregg (Club premises No. 19)
1940-1 Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Hour Club (Club premises No. 1 Henry St)
1950-2 Fremantle Workers Social and Leisure Hour Club John Bowe (Club No. 1 Henry St)
1980-1 Fremantle Workers Social Club (No. 1 Henry St)
(Typed record in Library folder 367, copied from the ratebooks)
* Data and photograph (detail) from: John Dowson 2003, Old Fremantle, UWAP: 87. Dowson refers to the map as a "Plan of the Town of Fremantle. This is a c1885 version (ref. 24/7/16) of the August 1877 Surveyor General's map by C. Woodhouse" (2003: 81).
Tuckfield, Trevor 1971, 'Early colonial inns and taverns', Early Days: Journal and proceeedings of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, 7, 3: 65-82; Part 2, Early Days: Journal and proceeedings of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, 7, 7: 98-106.
Williams, A.E. 1984, Nedlands: From Campsite to City, City of Nedlands.
Article about Stout in historyofwaphotography, including the advertisment mentioned above.
Streets of Freo page for the building.
Garry Gillard | New: 18 September, 2014 | Now: 13 March, 2024