Christmas Sundowner 2019
National Hotel, Fremantle
What a fabulous venue for a Sundowner. About twenty of us from the History Council and the Professional Historians Association enjoyed some great hospitality at the National Hotel, corner High and Market Street, Fremantle on the evening of 5 December 2019.
First to the rooftop bar, with its spectacular 360 degree views of Fremantle, a welcome breeze after a scorching day, and some impressive cocktails! After drinks we went downstairs for a long table dinner on the first floor verandah. Another superb view, this time of High Street’s marvellous array of goldrush architecture and quintessentially Australian bull nosed verandahs, as we looked down towards the Roundhouse. We were then treated to an informal talk on the history of the National Hotel by owner and publican, Karl Buller. Karl is part owner and CEO of the Carnegie Group which owns bars and restaurants in Hong Kong, Tapai and the Carnegies Rooftop Bar Conservatory on Murray Street Perth.
High St Fremantle in 1929, showing the National Hotel with its distinctive cupola.
Karl’s talk, information on Inherit (the hotel is in the West End Conservation Area and on the Fremantle Local Inventory), and some Trove searches tell of the hotel’s history. The site was occupied by a single-storey shop in 1868, then from 1880 the National Bank until it relocated. J.J. Higham, prominent merchant, opened the building as hotel in 1886 retaining the name ‘National’. The first landlord William Conroy shot and murdered a town councillor outside the new Fremantle Town Hall during the opening night event in 1887. He was the last man hanged in Perth Gaol and stories abound around this including a botched attempt at his execution. Major reconstruction of the hotel occurred in 1895, at the height of the gold boom. But in 1902, now owned by the Mulcahy family, it was replaced by a new five storey hotel designed by architect Louis Pearce. Then it was a ‘residential hotel’ and was regularly advertised in newspapers throughout the state as:
‘The Most Central, Comfortable and Up-to-Date Hotel in Fremantle.
Magnificent views from the Roof Garden
and
The Coolest Spot in Fremantle’
Fremantle was a tough port town. After the proprietor was granted a hotel licence in 1924, offenders were frequently brought before the Fremantle Police Court on charges of obscene language, disorderly conduct, assault, and fighting. The police force in Fremantle were severely undermanned and during a brawl between English seamen in the lane adjoining the National Hotel in 1928, onlookers joined in as the police tried to arrest the brawlers. That year too, a previous offender, labelled ‘one of the State’s bad men’, was imprisoned for two months after stealing a sledge hammer with the intention of ‘smashing up’ the National Hotel — and its patrons. In 1929 during an assault case in the Fremantle Police Court the magistrate was told that barmen employed at the National Hotel were given protection when going off duty at night. That year the National Hotel was claimed to have the largest trade in Fremantle. The National also featured in the press during WWII with stories of the deaths of brawling servicemen, most notably on 11 April 1944 when five to six hundred men, mainly American and New Zealand servicemen battled for hours in High St, with dozens hospitalized and two Maoris knifed to death. After the war, the hotel had another makeover in 1953.
The hotel has suffered a number of fires. The first was a minor fire on the rooftop in 1929. Then in 1975, the top floor was destroyed by fire. Trading continued downstairs and in 1995 architect Michael Patroni restored the interior of the building. The façade was renovated in 2001-02, but prior to the gradual completion of restoration the hotel was vandalised and again gutted by fire in 2007. The interior and verandahs were completely destroyed. Purchased by Carnegies in 2009, restoration became an expensive labour of love for Karl and his wife Janine, overseen by Studio Atelier (Kimberley Tan and Jeff Swinyard). Originally there was a courtyard in the middle of the hotel, reached by the lane mentioned earlier. This was the perfect place for an unashamedly modern staircase, but anchored by the original massive carved newel posts. Wherever possible original features were restored, but damage was so extensive that some, like mantlepieces, had to be sourced from other locations. The bar counters on the ground and first floor, for example, are made from jarrah sleepers, once part of the Perth to Fremantle railway built in 1883.
On the top floor of the National is the Widow’s Walk, where the wives of mariners watched anxiously for their ships coming over the horizon. In the 1920s there were roof gardens there and today the Widow’s Walk again includes planters overflowing with garden shrubs as well as a rooftop bar in the cupola.
