Heritage listing for Perth landmarks

27/7/96

Heritage Minister Richard Lewis today announced that two West Perth landmarks would be given the full protection of the State's heritage laws.

Mr Lewis said the Charles Street Methodist Mission Chapel and Methodist Church had been listed on the State Register of Heritage Places following a recommendation by the Heritage Council of Western Australia.

The buildings, near the intersection of Newcastle and Charles Streets, had been listed on an interim basis.

The chapel was built in 1890 and the church constructed in 1897.

"Combined with neighbouring buildings of the same era, the structures represent an important component of an historic precinct," Mr Lewis said.

"The buildings have had an important social value to the community and members of the Methodist Church for more than 100 years.

"While not currently serving their original purpose, the buildings are still of great value to many people who visited them for social and religious gatherings."

The Minister said the buildings were rare and deserved to be protected for future generations.

"There are few examples in the Perth metropolitan area of an older timber chapel surviving alongside a later masonry church, as on most occasions the chapel was demolished on the completion of the replacement church," he said.

Before the chapel was built, local Methodists held services in private homes. As the community grew, the need for a permanent meeting place also grew.

The timber chapel was built in a pre-Goldrush carpenter Gothic style, while the church is an imposing limestone and tuck-point brick building in a Goldrush Freestyle Gothic style.

When the church opened in 1897 the chapel was used by a variety of community groups and, in 1930, the YMCA began a 50-year association with the buildings.

Youth clubs used the church and the chapel for many years, before the buildings were acquired by the Crown in the 1980s and used by TAFE.

Media contact : Bronwyn Hillman 222 9595, 221 1377