McNess Royal Arcade

Charles McNess and his contribution to Perth

Charles McNess was born in Huntingdon, England in 1852, the son of a shoesmith. He was apprenticed as a child to learn the trade of a tinsmith, a choice that defined his future. By the age of 23 he had moved to London where he traded in scrap metals and got married. The following year, 1876, he sailed to Western Australia under a colonial emigration scheme designed to encourage ‘small capitalists’. He made this work for him leasing a corner of Barrack and Hay Streets and building five shops of galvanised iron, opening trade as a tinsmith and ironmonger. His business flourished, and, with expansion during the goldrush period, he accumulated great wealth. His only child, Charles Herbert Fortescue McNess, was born around 1893. He invested in Western Australian real estate and by 1896 owned the land at the corner of Hay and Barrack Streets, where he built the Royal McNess Shopping Arcade, the first of its type in Perth, which opened in 1897.

McNess, a generous philanthropist, shared his wealth with many deserving charitable causes. He supported war loans and patriotic funds during World War One and donated funds to churches, hospitals, charities and institutions for the young. He quietly provided money to the State Government for housing for the impoverished which formed the basis of the McNess Housing Trust, his donations surpassing that able to be provided by the Government during the Depression era. His money supported clothing funds and aided the formation of Yanchep National Park which provided work for the unemployed during this difficult period.

Honoured with a knighthood in 1931 for his philanthropy, in the following and final years of his life, McNess continued his benefaction. He assisted religious institutions, the Y.M.C.A., the Boy Scouts Association, the Blind Institution, the Salvation Army, the R.S.L. and Legacy Club, the State War Memorial and St. John Ambulance. His will, after his death in 1938, detailed bequests to all of these organisations along with funds to support the McNess Housing Trust, which is calculated by the WA Housing Department to have been responsible for providing 477 homes for the needy.

Charles McNess's original ironmonger shop on Hay Street.(Supplied: Heritage Perth)

Origins of the Alhambra bar

The Alhambra bar and billiard saloon had its grand opening on 1 July 1898, just 6 months after the official opening of McNess’ Royal Arcade buildings. Run by proprietor Eugenio Vanzetti and situated at the corner of Hay and Barracks Streets, in Perth, the Alhambra is located beneath the Royal Arcade buildings with entrances from both Hay and Barrack Streets. Stairs descend down into the venue, advertised as having Australia’s longest bar. Celebrated for being attractive and comfortable, the Alhambra café also had a French chef producing continental-style meals, a fine array of wines and unequalled Bahia cigars. Catering for both men and women, they had an elegant Ladies’ Lounge as well as smoking and billiards rooms with “private cosy rooms for suppers”, and a “daintily served” tea available daily at 4pm.

An original feature of the bar was a large mural of Alhambra, the palace built in Spain over many hundreds of years to resemble a paradise on earth, consisting of a central court with many rooms opening onto it. The first proprietor, metallurgist Eugenio Vanzetti, wealthy from Western Australia’s gold mining industry, had spent time in Spain which likely influenced the naming and decoration of the original Alhambra Bar. Vanzetti had grandiose plans for Italian colonisation, mining tramways, a water scheme and wine producing interests. He eventually over-stepped the mark and his ambitious plans fell apart. Less than 1 year after its grand opening in 1899, the Alhambra Bar temporarily ceased operation due to Vanzetti and Co. being in receivership.

The Alhambra Bar was re-opened a few weeks later by Karl Fink, the second of numerous proprietors and licensees who have seen the bar in almost continuous operation from 1898 until today. The name has changed only a few times over the years:

Alhambra Bar/s
Alhambra Cafe
Alhambra Cafe & Bars, also Menzies’ Billiard Rooms
De Pedro’s Alhambra Bar (1913-mid 1933)
Alhambra Underground Bars
Alhambra Bodega Bar
Bodega Bar
Alhambra Tavern
Alhambra Bars Tavern
Miguel’s Wine Bar & Bistro (1980’s)
Ziggy’s (early to mid-1990’s)
43 Below (1998 - today)

McNess’ Royal Arcade

At noon on 23 December 1897, McNess’ Royal Arcade was formally declared open by Alexander Forrest, the Lord Mayor of Perth, and brother of Premier John Forrest. He thanked Charles McNess for his foresight in having erected the arcade which would benefit the citizens of Perth. Standing on land purchased by McNess in 1895, the highly ornate arcade was designed in the Federation Free Classical style and took 15 months to build at a cost of £30,000 (the equivalent of $5 million today). Located at the corner of Hay and Barrack Streets opposite the Perth Town Hall, on the site where McNess had previously run his tinsmith and ironmongering business for almost twenty years, the Royal Arcade contained well-lit and well-ventilated shops and offices, most of which had already attracted tenants.

The first tenants included a tailor, bookseller, florist, optician, a trading company, sewing machine depot and tea room on the ground floor as well as the office of Eugenio Vanzetti, importer and proprietor of the Alhambra Bars operating in the basement of the building from July 1898. The first floor attracted professionals such as architects, financiers, solicitors, land agents, costumiéres and a surveyor, while the second floor accommodated the caretaker, a musician and an accountant, among others. Several hairdressers soon took up tenancy on the ground floor, as did the receiving office for the Perth Electric Tramways in 1901, which had run along Hay Street since September 1899. Two of the more unusual tenant occupations were, Mrs Drayton, feather-cleaner, on the second floor in 1901, and Madame Phyllis, palmist, in 1902.

Stewart Dawson & Co. jewellers, original tenants from 1898, retained their premises for almost 60 years. In 1932, Charles’ son, Herbert Fortescue McNess, took up an office there as an estate agent. After the death of his father in 1938, Herbert retained ownership of the property until his own death in 1980. Shortly after this time, the building was purchased by the University of Western Australia and although modified to accommodate larger shops, the original arcade and the upper rooms remain and have been vacant for almost forty years.