INDISSOLUBLE LINKS – MOUNT LAWLEY, INGLEWOOD AND THE

BACKGROUND

Today’s suburb of Inglewood is made up of parts of three colonial land grants: • Swan Location Y part of which, bounded by the avenues from Central Avenue(north side) to Homer Street/Dundas Road/Eleventh Avenue and by Hamer parade and Carrington Street. • Swan Location X, part of which between York Street and . • Location Ab, a large part of which was government reserve, but a small part of which, part of the Tennyson Estate lies at the northern end of the suburb BEGINNINGS

SWAN LOCATION Y (See lower left area in the Inglewood map on page 1)

The key figure in the foundation of the suburb of Inglewood was the somewhat shady entrepreneur Charles Ernest Deeley (1849 1904) pictured right. He was born in Hackney, London and came to in 1869. There, and later in South , he engaged in speculative enterprises such as floating gold mining and real estate companies and coming to in the early 1890s he continued as before.

On a visit to London in 1894, he persuaded investors there set up a company Gold Estates of Australia with £100,000 capital, one of whose enterprises was to buy Swan Location Y from General Charles Dallas Alexander in 1895. That land of 367 hectares was bought for £7,000.

It had been granted to John Gregory in 1830, later passed into the hands of Edward Birkett, Then Mary Hutton and George Baker, and was finally bought by Charles Alexander in 1886 for £3,000.

Charles Deeley never lived in the area, but managed it from a Office,

In 1900, he handed control to Edgar Walter Hamer (1862-1943) pictured right, who built a large house at 731 .

The Area was divided into four rectangles in 1895 (see the map on page 1): • Inglewood • Pineapple • Maylands (two segments)

This area had slow beginnings from 1897 to 1918, but accelerated from then, until being essentially built upon by 1940.

SWAN LOCATION X (See the narrow section running upper left to lower right in the map)

This was originally also granted to Mary Hutton in 1844. Subsequent owners were Frederick and Henry Sherwood who bought it in 1885, John Langtree Reilly (a surveyor of ), and in 1894, Robert Crawford of Victoria. York Street and Crawford Road were surveyed in that year. Thereafter, the land was parcelled and re-parcelled and sold. The last section around India and Buller Streets was finally developed by George Robert ledger of Caris Bros, Jewellers.

LOCATION Ab (See harp shaped section middle left in the map)

There is a small triangle, part of the larger Tennyson Estate, which is a residential area in Inglewood.

The Tennyson Estate was acquired by Frederick Illingworth (1844-1908), pictured right, in 1903, by speculator and politician. Living in Victoria, he indulged in heavy private borrowing for speculation and by early 1891 his personal liabilities were estimated at £283,000. He absconded and settled in Western Australia as a land and estate agent. None of this prevented him from pursuing an active and prominent career in Western Australian politics, rising to the post of Treasurer (he built the magnificent mansion “Meeralinga at 1186 Hay Street, West Perth).

DEVELOPMENT

BEFORE 1921

SWAN LOCATION Y (Dundas Road pictured below right)

Except for the hilly ridge that runs along Carrington Street, his part of Inglewood was uniformly flat and semi-swampy. Considerable areas needed draining, this being undertaken in the first two decades of the 20th century under the direction of the municipal engineers. This governed the settlement in the area. Thus, the development of Sixth Avenue and Central Avenue east of Beaufort Street was slow because of this.

Taking 1920, the following will show the slow take up of the Gold Estates of Australia lots:

Beaufort Street: Fifth Ave 822 Police Const. William Innes (built 1913) Sixth Ave 835 Selby Gregory Seventh Ave 857 ‘Thistle Aerated Waters Co’: G S Milling 859 Grocer: George Wellman Eighth Ave 868 Mrs A M Hislop

Central Avenue: 112 George McInnes (built 1915) 154 George McCaw (built 1907)

Sixth Avenue: 112 H S Reid (built 1917) 152 Frank Rose (built 1919 160 Stewart Brown (built 1918)

Seventh Avenue

125 Mrs E Guilfoyle (built 1911) 126 William H Smith (Built 1914) 128 George Padgham (built 1907) 129 Edward Penny (built 1905) * Equal first house built in Inglewood 130 Walter Ashton (built 1906) 131 Alfred Turner (built 1907) 133 Edward Ward (built 1917) 136 J H Morrissey (built 1915) 137 Mrs Ettie Goodlet (built 1908) 158 Hedney Kaye (built 1915) 167 Norman Willows (built 1920) 168 Charles Collins (built 1918) 171 F Roy Brown (built 1920) 172 Thomas Ward (built 1917) 174 A B Curgenven (built 1920) 176 C H Speight (built 1920) 177 Edward Miller (built 1920) 180 James Beck (built 1917) 184 William Herbert (built 1917) 194 Clarence Smith (built 1917)

Eighth Avenue 143 L Banyard (built 1913) 144 Walter S Bishop (built 1916) 146 R McA Piercy (built 1914) 154 Reginald Smith (built 1914) 157 H S Greenvold (built 1906) 171 George Hodgkiss (built 1918) 176 Edwin T Mais (1909) 191 James Rae (built 1915) 220 G W H Galloway (built 1916) 236 Charles Allen (built 1916) 258 Jeremiah M Quinn (built 1916), who kept a dairy

Ninth Avenue 126 G S Willison (built 1912) 128 David Cover (built 1916) 132 John Palmer (built 1909) 133 John Holdcroft (built 1915) 136 Alfred Robert Pagelson (built 1909) 152 Mrs M Daniels, nurse (built 1907 as a private hospital) 163 James H Buzza (built 1912) 164 Henry J Wear (built 1915) 172 Henry Mitchell (built 1905) *equal first house built in Inglewood

Tenth Avenue 53 Oscar Pengell (built 1907) 68 Charles Pass (built 1920) 70 Walter R Grubb (1914) 72 Richard Getliffe (built 1915) 74 Walter J Wartlehock (built 1915) 76 E H Callow (built 1916) 80 E A Bedford (built 1915) 82 ? (built 1920) 84 H stewart (built 1918) 90 Albert Jeffrey (built 1915) 93 Thomas Rogers (built 1915)

John Street 52 William Healy (built 1908) 57 Walter Hatcher (Built 1922) 61 Albert Standing (built 1920)

In summary, In Swan Location Y: 14 houses were built before 1911 47 houses were built between 1911 and 1920

Within the next 10 years, practically all of the property in this part of Inglewood was taken up.

SWAN LOCATION X

This part of Inglewood did not have the drainage problems present in Swan Location Y. It was more undulating and had slightly higher elevations.

Again using the date 1920 to illustrate take up, the following will show very little development.

Crawford Road 205 James Riley (built 1915) 219 John Nichols (built 1915)

Waterford Street, pictured right 22 George H Smith (built 1915)

York Street A wooden Methodist Church was situated at the corner of Kennedy Street, built in 1917. 2 A E Johnson (built 1913)

Stuart Street (Called Wellington Street before 1929) 137 Clarence Snowden (built 1913)

The development of this area of Inglewood proceeded more evenly over the two decades 1920 – 1940.

LOCATION Ab

The first houses went up in this estate in 1959 and was fully developed by 1980.

SERVICES

TRAMS

The Beaufort Street trams were extended into Inglewood on 17 August 1923, when Tram No 17 was extended from Second Avenue to Seventh Avenue (single line only). This was extended to Dundas Road on 25 August 1929. The next extension was to Salisbury Street on 19 February 1933. The final extension was to Grand Promenade on 8 March 1943, and the line was doubled up to Salisbury Street The service was terminated on 19 July 1958

SCHOOL

Inglewood Primary School, pictured right,opened in 1928 under the name of North Maylands Primary School. It continued under that name until 1950, when its name was changed to North Inglewood Primary School, and soon after to its current name Inglewood Primary School.

THEATRE

The Civic Theatre, pictured right, was opened on 12 February 1936 showing the films “Ginger” and “Irish in US”. It closed on June 1 1962 showing the films “Blue Hawaii” and “Tokyo After Dark”.

HOTEL

Civic Hotel, pictured right, was built in 1940 for £12,000 for owner E J Reilly (he also owned the Shaftsbury Hotel in Stirling Street, Perth). The builder was Plunketts Builders Ltd of 98 Smith Street, Highgate. The architect was ‘Summerhayes & Marshall Clifton.

LIBRARY

The Inglewood Library was opened in May 1963, and the present Library building was built in 1992 (together with the Bob Daniels Centre)

POLICE STATION

The Inglewood police station in Eighth Avenue was built in 1940, and was formally opened on 2 December that year by the Police Minister, William H Kitson. It is protected from demolition.

CONCLUSIONS

Note that I shall use the name City of Stirling to cover all three iterations of the Municipality ( Perth Roads Board – 1871 to 1961; Perth Shire Council – 1961 to 1971; City of Stirling – 1971 on).

Fact 1: Mount Lawley (including Menora and Coolbinia) and Inglewood have always been together in the City of Stirling.

Fact 2: These three areas have grown and developed in harmony and in parallel – Mount Lawley from 1902 through to 1960, Inglewood from 1905 through to 1950.

Fact 3,: Excepting some of the grand residences in prestige areas of Mount Lawley, the housing stock –in styles, fabric, and scale- has been comparable in each area.

Fact 3: The social complexion of this combined area has been largely the same – rising professional (eg Sir Paul Hasluck), clerical, technical, commercial.

Fact 4: This combined area has produced a good proportion of the leaders (Mayors,etc) of the City of Stirling (eg Neil Hawkins CBE, pictured left, was a resident of Inglewood 69 Normanby Road, pictured right).

Fact 5: The boundary of Mount Lawley has flowed seamlessly into the original Inglewood area – from First Avenue to Central avenue.

Fact 6: These two suburbs have shared facilities (Library, Inglewood Hotel, Hamer Park, etc) most provided by the City of Stirling.

Fact 7: The Mount Lawley Society has a considerable (and growing) membership drawn from Inglewood, these being just as fiercely concerned to preserve the character and amenity of their area.

Fact 8: Due to the activities of the Mount Lawley society, and with the support of the City of Stirling, ground-breaking heritage protection areas have been established in both suburbs. We would not have achieved this without the support of the City of Stirling!