William Street
William Street was named in honour of William Henry, King William IV (1765-1837), King of the United Kingdom and of Hanover from 26th June 1830 until his death on 20th June 1837. He was the predecessor of George IV, who was the King when the Swan River colony was founded in 1829. William served in the Royal Navy in his youth and was, both during his reign and afterwards, nicknamed the "Sailor King".
Since his two older brothers died without leaving legitimate issue, he inherited the throne when he was 64 years old. His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour restricted, slavery abolished in nearly all the British Empire, and the British electoral system refashioned by the Reform Act 1832. Although William did not engage in politics as much as his brother or his father, he was the last monarch to appoint a prime minister contrary to the will of Parliament. William Street was first known as King William Street.
1921-22 - 100 William Street, Perth, WA.
A landmark office and shopping building in the centre of Perth, built of rendered brick around steel frame in Federation Free Classical style. It was built in a period of great prosperity in WA that was birthed in the wake of the 1890s gold rush in that state. The rooftop plaza was added after World War II. Designed in the Inter-war Art Deco style by Talbot Hobbs, an architect responsible for a number of buildings in the Perth Central Business Distric, the building replaced the previous Economic Store building that had been destroyed by fire in 1921.
The basement of the building was used as a food court until a 2007 fire caused extensive damage, forcing its closure. The building was classified by the National Trust of Australia in 1978.
1935-38 - Gledden Building, Cnr Hay and William Streets, Perth, WA.
This well known landmark in Perth's central shopping precinct is the only remaining Commercial Gothic style skyscraper, based on the Chicago Tribune Building, in Perth. For many years Gledden Building was the tallest reinforced concrete structure in Perth, and the city's tallest building.
In September 1937, while the building was still under construction, the University held a competition to design friezes for the ground level retail arcade. The competition called for friezes to include motifs representative of Western Australian flora and fauna. Western Australian artists George Benson, Clem Kennedy and William G. Bennett were the three winners of the competition and their works were included in the final construction. The friezes remain in place.
At construction the building featured a two-level retail arcade. The top floor housed a restaurant and the rooftop served as lookout. The 2-storey corner turret also had observation facilities. The building's beacon atop served as an aerial landmark, at 43.5m above ground, was the highest point in the city for decades. The rooftop and tower observation areas were closed during World War II for 'safety reasons' but was never reopened.
The site was originally granted to an innkeeper, William Leeder, in 1831, and was part of a lot extending along William Street from St Georges Terrace to Hay Street. His name is remembered in the suburb of Leederville where had extensive land holdings. Eventually the land came into the ownership of Robert Gledden, a Perth mining surveyor and property entrepreneur who came to Australia in 1890. Gledden amassed his wealth by astute property investments, retiring in 1900, at the age of forty four.
1930 - 56-60 William Street, Perth, WA.
Located next door to the Gledden Building, this seven storey office built in the Inter-War Functionalist style was erected as the Western Australian office of the Orient Steam Navigation Company, one of the two major passenger and cruise liner companies serving Australia from the late 1800s to the 1970s. It was designed by the architectural firm of Hobbs, Smith and Forbes, which designed a number of important institutional and commercial buildings in Western Australia.
The building, of steel framed construction with Donnybrook sandstone and rendered brick cladding, inspired the owners of the Gledden site next door to erect an even bigger, grander building. Its name was changed to the P&O; Building when the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Orient Line were formally merged in 1960 to form P&O-Orient; Lines. A close association between the two companies began at the turn of the 20th century with the two companies sharing an Australian Government mail contract.
1867-1870 - Wesley Church, 75 William Street, Perth, WA
Wesley Church, at the intersection of William and Hay Streets, is one of the oldest church buildings and one of few remaining 19th-century colonial buildings in the City of Perth. The Church is built of load-bearing brick laid in Flemish bond in the Victorian academic gothic style and features a landmark spire, steeply pitched roofs, parapeted gables, label (hood) moulds and wall buttressing. The 35 metres high spire with a weathercock on top is surrounded by four smaller spires at its base which are capped by metal finials.
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2007-2010 - Gordon Stephenson House, Cny William and Wellington Streets, Perth, WA
Gordon Stephenson House is one of Perth s most influential recent commercial developments, being located over the underground platform of the Perth Railway station known as Perth Underground, and including an entrance to it. The complex has three office towers ranging from 6 to 19 storeys with two basement car parking levels. Two retail levels offer 6,500 square metres of commercial space while the remaining office space of 35,500 square metres has been leased by the State Government.
As its name implies, the Horseshoe Bridge is shaped like a horseshoe. It was designed that way so as to allow road traffic on William Street - one of the Perth CBD's busiest streets - to pass over the railway lines to the east of Perth station, while allowing access to the bridge from the two streets alongside the railway line, they being Wellington Street and Roe Street. By the mid 1890s, there were seven lines to cross and the street level crossing was often closed as the amount of railway traffic increased. The solution was to build a bridge across the railway at William Street
The construction of the Horseshoe Bridge in 1903 had a major impact on the role of William Street as an arterial road. Although the bridge was unpopular in some circles, it provided a safe overhead crossing of the railway. It would appear that opposition to the bridge was principally because it was erected at the expense of two pedestrian overpasses. The shape of the new bridge meant that pedestrians had to walk a great deal further to pass over the railway lines. However, the bridge had a favourable impact on businesses in William Street as access between the northern and southern parts of the city was no longer dependent on railway traffic, and there were no more delays at the William Street crossing.
