London Court

The Grand Opening

On 29 July 1937, London Court Arcade opened to the public with a three-day festival of pomp and pageantry. At the Olde English Fayre, people could buy souvenir London Court cigarettes or have a go on the x-ray machine (“a novel x-ray demonstration...staged at considerable cost to the generous sponsors”) while taking a first look at the highly-publicised project that had been a year in construction. 4,900 visitors came through on the first day after the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir James Mitchell, unlocked the great gates with a gold key and his wife, Lady Mitchell, cut the red, white, and blue ribbon with a pair of gold scissors to officially declare London Court open. This number more than doubled the next day with 10,000 people buying entry tickets. The arcade with its old-world Tudor charm was officially a hit with the people of Perth.

Designed with the intention of connecting central Hay Street to St George’s Terrace, London Court was the brainchild of mining entrepreneur Claude de Bernales. Born in England, the son of American-born Basque, Manuel, and his wife, Emma Jane, de Bernales had immigrated to Western Australia in 1897 to try his luck during the gold rush.

At the peak of his prosperity, de Bernales purchased the land on which London Court now stands for £75,000 ($5.95 million in today’s currency) and created the London Court Arcade Company. He personally selected Melbourne architect Bernard Evans as the designer for the project, giving him a brief to create an arcade which would be ‘unique in all of Australia’. The resulting collaboration - conceived by de Bernales, based on Liberty’s of London, and realised by Evans - is the Elizabethan half-timbered Tudor Revival style that endures to this day.

Bernales was not present for the opening of London Court - he was in England on business. However, he recorded a speech to be played as part of the opening ceremony. “I think the occasion will mark an important advancement in the development of Perth” he said, though as he spoke those words, he could not have foreseen the legacy that London Court would become.

Construction

The ground was broken in August 1936 and work commenced. Many local businesses benefited from the construction of London Court. Western Australian newspaper articles and advertising of the time proudly listed the companies contracted to do the work: the painters were based in Claremont, the timber supplied by a company that had its main office in West Perth.

“Practically the whole of the materials will be purchased in Western Australia, and be, as far as possible, the work of local manufacture. In addition, all local labor will be employed” was the claim made by the London Court Construction Company.

Specialist artisan labour was also sought to ensure that the Tudor style could be reproduced as faithfully as possible. The project managers were incredibly lucky to find, living in North Perth, an expert on 15th century wood-carving - Edward G Madeley - to carve the window-boxes from local jarrah timber and add details in the form of Tudor roses and gargoyles.

The famous London Court clocks, which are so popular for visitors, have a slightly different provenance. They were based on Le Grosse Horloge de Rouen in France, constructed in England by the Synchronome Company of Middlesex and shipped out to Australia to be assembled by their maker, Frank Hope-Jones, who worked in cooperation with a heraldry specialist to incorporate the figures of St George and the Dragon and the four tilting knights.

The construction of London Court was not without incident - there were worksite accidents and, later, an investigation into whether city by-laws had been contravened to allow the project to proceed - but ultimately, the development was completed, and, as the dust settled on the celebrations of the Olde English Fayre, the tenants of the 24 residential flats and 53 shops began to move in.

Shopping

Current visitors to London Court will notice some tiny shops among the commercial premises which flank each side of the main walkway. These are what remain of the original 53 shops, the larger premises being the result of shop-keepers renting several premises to turn them into a single, larger space.

Many of the businesses that operated in London Court in 1937 were similar to those found here today. There were dress shops and newsagents, small cafes and milkbars.

You could buy books from K B Arnold’s bookshop or a bouquet of flowers from Court Florists. But there was also a pet shop - The Little Zoo - which specialised in the sale of birds and, if you wanted to buy a fur coat, you could visit Lesters of London Furriers.

In the basement, in the space which is now Tactics, Ye London Court Tavern was central to the social life of Perth. Many parties were held there and it was an especially popular venue for wedding receptions. The French-Australian Association of Perth held its Bastille Day celebrations here and, when it was under the management of a certain Mr Marischler, it was said to be the only place in Perth where you could find genuine Hungarian goulash.

The Red Cross had offices and also ran its fundraising out of shop 52 (which is currently the home of London Court Books).

Similarly, the Communist Party rented offices upstairs at the St George’s Terrace end, as well as the ‘Progressive Bookshop’ in shop 44 which sold, among other things, the ‘Worker’s Star’ newspaper. Their activities were strongly opposed by Viv James, an anti-communist speaker and fellow tenant. He ran London Court Matrimonial - an introductions (dating) service - and once managed to introduce a couple to each other who were married after just one week.

London Court continues to be the home of many fascinating and enduring small businesses; some for more than forty years.

Apartments

The advertising for the London Court flats promised tenants ‘every convenience necessary for self-contained living’. All followed the same design - a living-room, bathroom, small kitchen, and one bedroom. The flats were accessed by a staircase from the main thoroughfare of the arcade, but there was also a rear staircase which led to the roof where there was a laundry and drying area.

While Old World charm and location was pushed as a selling-point, modern conveniences such as a special air-conditioning system (‘not previously installed in this State’) and the latest in refrigerators - the Quirk’s Electrice model - were showcased to tempt prospective tenants. The colour scheme of the apartments was in a classic 1930s yellow and green - the paint provided by Bergers, a company still in existence today.

The arcade was closed to the public at night so a caretaker lived in one of the apartments, to let residents in (or out) after hours. Those who preferred to remain at home when the wrought-iron gates were locked could enjoy delivery to their door of food from the basement Tavern.

Once London Court was operational, the flats filled quickly with 22 out of the 24 occupied in the year after opening. Many of the tenants also rented commercial premises in the arcade and it seems to have made sense to them to ‘live above the shop’.

The presence of a caretaker and the locked-gates overnight also made the flats popular with single women - career girls who had moved from the country to take jobs in the city and, later, war widows.

Another attraction would have been the low-rents which were advertised as a feature of the arcade. First floor flats were £2/2 per week and second floor flats £1/15/ per week which was a bargain price for inner-city living.

Tenants

Rix Weaver, writer of Western Australian history, romance novels, Jungian Psychologist, and celebrity graphologist, lived in Flat 9 and managed the Book Box bookshop. World traveller, dressmaker to Australian stage celebrities, and collector of antiques, Margaret Mary McGilvray ran London Court Antiquities and furnished her flat (Flat 10) with 17th century furniture from her collection.

Jessica McKenzie, who lived in Flat 4, was from Wongan Hills. She was a debutante who was presented to the Governor, Sir James Mitchell, in 1949. The very well-connected Myra Millicent Fraser - she was a cousin of the Earl of Stradbroke - worked for the London Court Arcade Company as a “manageress”. She moved into Flat 1 when the flats opened and stayed for at least 10 years, later taking over Flat 2 as well so that her widowed mother could live with her.

Famous Perth milliner (who once got into trouble with Fremantle customs officials for using illegally-imported pheasant feathers in her hats), Belle Gladstone, lived in Flat 13 and had a shop in the Plaza Arcade - another de Bernales development. She was a business woman who travelled the world and whose opinion on fashion and other matters was sought and showcased on radio and in the newspapers. When asked for her “Slant on Men” she said she liked those who had ‘a keen sense of humour, good grooming, and good manners’ and that ’men should take an interest in their womenfolk’s clothes and hats’

The flats have seen their share of interesting male tenants too. Dr A H Humphrey who lived in Flat 7 for a short time, went from being a country doctor in Dalwallinu to Commonwealth Quarantine Officer for the Northern Territory and, later, Commonwealth Director of Health in Queensland. Then there is the tragic tale of solicitor Colville Parslow (Flat 20), a keen hobby yachtsman who lost his life jumping from a Tiger Moth into the ocean off Rottnest Island in an attempt to assist the passengers of a yacht that was becalmed off its shores.

Today

These days, the London Court of the 21st century continues as a mixed retail and commercial centre, though zoning laws and insurance concerns have meant that the flats can no longer be used residentially. Those which have not been turned into offices or storage spaces stand empty, and visitors to London Court may not even realise that the arcade was once home to many diverse people and that many interesting stories played out behind the leadlight windows of the tiny flats.

Business still continues, however, with jewellers’ shops, hair and beauty salons, legal offices, dentists, podiatrists and other entities renting premises in the arcade, with several family businesses maintaining a presence in London Court across generations.

Not long after the opening of London Court, Claude de Bernales’ business concerns began to suffer. He found himself beset by accusations of mismanagement and was involved in a lengthy legal case. He returned to England where he lived out the remainder of his life as a recluse, dying in 1963 after a period of poor health. Yet the arcade that he wished to be ‘unique in all Australia’ endures. It holds fond memories for Perth residents and visitors alike, remaining to this day a beloved and quaint slice of Old England in the heart of our busy city.

Written by Nicki Blake