P&O Hotel- Corner 25 High St and 20 Mouat St
Architecture- The P&O Hotel is a highly decorative and prominent two storey hotel; built in the boom of the gold period. The main entrance is on the corner of High and Mouat Streetss. The decorative parapet has balustrade, columns and five large pediments featuring stilted arches with columns and decorative stucco. The building originally had a clock tower and the corner of the parapet has the remains of a dome featuring the name The 'P&O Hotel' in decorative stucco.
History
The first building on this corner was a small hotel owned by the Pace family. This became the Victoria Hotel (c1870), a small hotel which stood on the site of the current P&O Hotel. Mrts Scott and Pat Hagan took over the Victoria Hotel in 1871. The bar was known as the 'Cockpit' and fitted out in nautical style.
1873 … Peter Docherty was charged with stealing Is. 6d., a tobacco pipe, and a piece of tobacco, from the person of Mr. Michael O'Grady, at Fremantle on the ll th February last. It appears that Mr. O'Grady went into the Victoria Hotel, Fremantle on the day in question, and laid down on a sofa in the parlour to enjoy his afternoon's siesta. The prisoner, who happened to be in the same room, observing him asleep, rifled his pockets, and was caught in flagrante delicie by Mr. Hagan, the landlord. The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to 3 years penal servitude.. (reference)
1877 Of the death of Mrs. Patrick Hagan, of the Victoria Hotel… Her many acts of unostentatious charity and true benevolence, her kind, motherly counsel, will indeed remain green in our memories… the deepest sympathy is felt for Mr. Hagan in his deep affliction, bereft thus early of his cheerful and beloved partner in life. The funeral, which took place yesterday afternoon, was probably the largest ever seen in the Port. All the vessels in harbor hoisted their flags half-mast as a mark of respect for the deceased. (reference)
New owners from c 1893 were Bernard O’Connor & Timothy Quinlan.
1893 Fremantle Municipal Council- A complaint of excessive rating by Mr. T. F. Quinlan, with regard to the Victoria Hotel premises was referred to the rating committee. (reference)
The Victoria Hotel was rebuilt by Cavanagh & Cavanagh c.1896 and the name changed to the P&O Hotel- it opened 1 July 1901.
The Bahen family owned the P&O from c 1932-1972. In 1938 architect Frank Rennie carried out alterations to the interior. Its verandas, removed in the 1960s, were reinstated in 2002. In 1972 outbuildings on the site were demolished.
New owners in 1985 carried out renovations, including in 1986, removal of three shopfronts on the ground floor (not original) and formation of a new entrance. In 1994, Revitalized Shopfitters carried out a refit of the interior.
1996: I lived for several months in the P&O Hotel in 1996.
The bedrooms were upstairs, the rent was fairly cheap and the room I stayed in was, thankfully, not a street side room. This meant that the hustle and bustle of Freo’s west end nightlife didn’t stop me from getting sleep. My room was small and sparse with a bed and wardrobe, a window and a door. Back then there was no wide, covered balcony like the hotel now has, instead the street side rooms had small individual balconies. Most of the street side rooms were large, had high ceilings and were well lit due to the windowed doors that opened up to their little balconies. Most of those on the High Street side used bed sheets to cover their windows due to the Sun’s propensity to heat up their rooms.
Next to my room was a communal kitchen and down the hall was a communal laundry and bathroom. At the corner of the west end of the hotel, upstairs, was a large room that was known as the Captain’s Room, but was being used by the Caretaker. That room was very spacious and had its own beautiful bar and fireplace. Directly downstairs from the caretaker’s room was the main bar, a large room that I have many fond memories of. Towards the back was the Manager’s Room. The stairs connecting upstairs directly to the street were located on the Mouat Street side of the building and were the resident’s after hours entry. Those days the West End of Freo had a large number of hotels and customers that enjoyed them. It wasn’t unusual to do the “west end pub crawl” and meet up with blokes you’d seen at another pub an hour beforehand. Beside the bar, on the north eastern end of the building was a restaurant- there was always the aromatic smell of good food wafting up.
I met some characters living in that hotel; the neighbour who lived directly across from me had been living there awhile with his girlfriend. I recall she worked as a skimpy barmaid in Kalgoorlie. Another bloke was a barman at the P&O, who after a night off in Freo with his mates was not only nursing a nasty hangover, but also sporting two broken ankles after he’d decided to drunkenly jump off the wall beside South Fremantle Football oval on Parry Street. Having 2 broken ankles, hobbling around on crutches, being a barman AND living upstairs is a bad combination for anyone. During my time at the hotel I saw, and met, quite a few people from interstate just dropping in for a quick visit, some international backpackers enjoying their stay, a biker and his partner and even blokes who’d been there for years. I’ve lived in a few pubs since then, but none had quite the character that the P&O had back then. Dave Dowley 2021
Occupants
Lot 45 and 46 were originally owned by Walter Pace (1829-1837), transferred to Ann Pace (1856-1876), then Scott & Patrick Hagan (1877-)
1898 Victoria Hotel -Bernard O’Connor & Timothy Quinlan
1897 - 1972 P & O HOTEL
(1897 - 1912 —)
1913 - 1914 Andrew Elliott licensee
1915 Paul Reichardt licensee
1916 - 1917 R E Hummerston licensee
1918 Edgar H Fielder licensee
1919 - 1920 R C McCutcheon licensee
1921 - 1922 J V Dolin licensee
1923 Maurice Gunzburg licensee
1924 - 1926 William James Munro licensee
1927 - 1932 W. Malone, licensee
1933 - 1935 Edward Wachman, licensee
1936 - 1972 Clem Bahen, licensee
c.2002-2021 it was leased by Notre Dame University (ND5) and used for student accommodation. Notre Dame no longer uses the building.
