Fremantle Town Hall is a

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

located in the portside city of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

, Western Australia, and situated on the corner of High, William and Adelaide Streets. The official opening, on 22 June 1887, coincided with the celebration of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's Jubilee and it was formally named by the mayor, Daniel Keen Congdon and the state governor, Frederick Broome, as the ''Town and Jubilee Hall''.

Plans

On 7 June 1876, Councillor Higham suggested that the council should approach the Colonial Secretary to have a government reserve, on the corner of South Terrace and Essex Street, set aside to build a

. The use of the site was approved by the state governor, William Robinson, who offered convict labour for the construction as well as free design and specification preparation by the government engineer, and promised to seek a liberal grant from the Legislative Council for the construction project. The government engineer drafted plans are no longer extant. On 11 July a ratepayers' meeting talked of the funds needed to build the town hall and Marmion unsuccessfully suggested that a more central site in

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

be purchased instead. Plans did not go ahead as funding could not be met. The more central site that had been previously suggested was bought by the council in 1876 after the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

decided to demolish the first St John's church, located on what is now High Street, and build the current church in St John's Square. In doing this, they sold the southern part of their land to the council, which both funded the new church and resulted in a triangular area of land suitable for the new town hall. In April 1881, the Chairman of the Council again raised the matter of the town hall. He proposed a building to cost no more than £8000, equivalent to in . Attempts to raise funds locally failed, and the architect behind the plans was rejected in favour of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

architects John Grainger and Charles D'Ebro, who also designed the National Bank in Fremantle.Tibbits, G. R. and Beauchamp, D
John Harry Grainger: Engineer and Architect
at ''3rd Australasian Engineering Heritage Conference 2009''. Retrieved 15 January 2013

Construction

Tenders were called in 1884 but none were chosen as they all exceeded the budget. After further modifications to the design, tenders were recalled and only one builder, Edward V. Keane, put forward a tender with four separate price ranges. These ranged from £19,832 to £12,400. The council decided to accept this builder but decided only to go ahead with the auditorium, supper room, kitchen and vestibule. Another ratepayers meeting was held and the council was urged to go ahead with the plan for the entire building. Building commenced on 28 May 1885 and the original finishing date was to be 28 November 1886. The foundation stone was laid on 10 September 1885 by

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Frederick Napier Broome. The opening took place on 22 June 1887, after a seven-month delay to coincide with the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. The ceremony was followed by a day of sports and a ball in the evening. Children attending government schools in Perth and Fremantle received an extra week's holiday.

Murder of Snook

On 23 June 1887 a children's fancy dress ball was held in the Hall. The Town Supervisor, Snook, and two other men had some trouble in keeping a group of rowdy men out of the Hall. Amongst the group was the landlord of the National Hotel in High Street, William Conroy, who gatecrashed the supper just after midnight, as the mayor was congratulating the stewards and officials on the "happy conclusion of the Jubilee". At 12:45am, Conroy was seen in the entrance hall and soon after a shot was heard. Allegedly, Conroy had shot Snook because Snook would not let him in. Despite his injuries, Snook lived for three more months before dying in September. Conroy was convicted of the crime, becoming the last person to be hanged at Perth Gaol.

Architecture

Local architects Griffiths and Considine, representing the Melbourne designers Grainger and D'Ebro, described the building thus:

Plans

Construction

Murder of Snook

Architecture

References

Further reading