St Georges Terrace (colloquially known as "The Terrace") is the main street in the city of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. It runs parallel to the Swan River and forms the major arterial road through the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

. Its western end is marked by the

Barracks Arch The Barracks Arch is located on the corner of Malcolm and Elder Streets, at the western end of St Georges Terrace in Perth, Western Australia. The Barracks Designed by Richard Roach Jewell, the Barracks were originally built from 1863 to 18 ...

near Parliament House across the

Mitchell Freeway The Mitchell Freeway is a freeway in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with the city of Joondalup. It is the northern section of State Route 2, which continues south as Kwinana Freeway and Forrest ...

; the eastern end joins

Adelaide Terrace Adelaide Terrace is a major arterial road through the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. It runs parallel to the Swan River, linking St Georges Terrace with The Causeway. Route description Adelaide Terrace's eastern end is ...

at the intersection with Victoria Avenue.

Naming

St Georges Terrace was named after St George's Cathedral. Originally, houses occupied by clergy of the cathedral and

lay clerk A lay clerk, also known as a lay vicar, song man or a vicar choral, is a professional adult singer in an Anglican cathedral and often Roman Catholic Cathedrals in the UK, or (occasionally) collegiate choir in Britain and Ireland. The vicars chora ...

s of the cathedral choir constituted a substantial portion of the Terrace. Some of these houses such as The Deanery remain, however the majority of these were demolished in the 1960s. The apostrophe was removed from the name in the 1980s.

Streetscapes

The level of St Georges Terrace is in effect at the top of a ridge, where the short roads that descend southerly towards

Perth Water Perth Water is a section of the Swan River on the southern edge of the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. It is between the Causeway to the east, and Narrows Bridge to the west – a large wide but shallow section of river, ...

all provide views of the Swan River, including

Barrack Street Barrack Street is one of two major cross-streets in the Perth central business district, central business district of Perth, Western Australia. Together with St Georges Terrace, Wellington Street, Perth, Wellington Street and William Street, Pe ...

, Sherwood Court, Howard Street, William Street, Mill Street and Spring Street.

Buildings

The main streetscape between Barrack Street and William Street in the 1930s and 1940s constituted considerable uniformity of design and building height. By the late 1970s removal of significant older buildings for taller more modern buildings changed this permanently. Perth's earlier tallest buildings were located on St Georges Terrace, including the Colonial Mutual Life building (tallest building in Perth from 1936 to 1962), subsequent tallest buildings were:

Citibank House Citibank House is an 18-storey office building in Perth, Western Australia. The building was opened in 1962 as the ''T & G Building'', and was the tallest building in Perth until 1970 when Hamersley House was opened. It underwent a major refurbi ...

(37 St Georges Terrace, 1962 until 1970; it was then known as the T & G Building), Parmelia House (191 St Georges Terrace, 1970 to 1973),

140 St Georges Terrace 140 St Georges Terrace is a 30-storey skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia. Opened in 1975, the tower was known as the AMP Building or AMP Tower after its owner and former flagship tenant, AMP Limited. The building became the tallest comple ...

(AMP Building, 1975 to 1976),

Allendale Square Allendale Square is a 32- storey skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia. When opened in 1976, the building surpassed the AMP Building to become the tallest completed building in Perth, a title which it only held until 1977 when St Martins Tow ...

(77 St Georges Terrace, 1976 to 1977),

St Martins Tower St Martins Tower is a office building in Perth, Western Australia. It was the tallest building in the city from its completion in 1978 for almost 10 years, until it was overtaken in height by the BankWest Tower in 1988. The tower contains a revo ...

(44 St Georges Terrace, 1978 to 1988),

BankWest Tower 108 St Georges Terrace or South32 Tower (formerly known as the Bankwest Tower, the Bond Tower and the R&I Tower) is a 50-storey office tower in Perth, Western Australia. Completed in 1988, the building measures to its roof and to the tip of ...

(108 St Georges Terrace, 1988 to 1992) and

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

(152-158 St Georges Terrace, tallest since 1992). A number of other buildings are along the road: *

100 St Georges Terrace 100 St Georges Terrace is a 24- storey skyscraper located at 100 St Georges Terrace in Perth, Western Australia. It is a mixed retail and commercial property. The retail component, named enex perth (formerly enex100), is made up of three floo ...

* Brookfield Place * Christian Brothers' College *

The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a fo ...

London Court London Court is a three and four-level open-roofed shopping arcade located in the central business district in Perth, Western Australia. It was built in 1937 by wealthy gold financier and businessman Claude de Bernales for residential and commer ...

Old Perth Boys School The Old Perth Boys School, located at 139 St Georges Terrace, Perth, Western Australia, is the earliest government school building in Western Australia. The single-storey limestone building was designed by William Ayshford Sanford in 1852 and i ...

* Palace Hotel * QV.1 * St George's House *

Technical School In the United States, a technical school is a type of two-year college that covers specialized fields such as business, finance, hospitality, tourism, construction, engineering, visual arts, information technology and community work. Associa ...

Footpath

Set into the footpath along the street are a series of commemorative plaques honouring notable figures in Western Australia's history. Originally 150 plaques were installed in 1979, as part of the

WAY '79 WAY 79, also referred to as WAY '79 and WAY 1979, was the official 1979 sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) celebration of the European colonisation of Western Australia. Planning Preliminary planning for WAY 79 began shortly after the March 1 ...

celebrations, marking the state's 150th year of European settlement. Since then, additional plaques have been added, so that there was one for each year from 1829 to 1999. In 2014, the 1959 plaque, commemorating

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

, was removed after Harris was convicted of sexual assault.

Intersections

References

External links

{{Perth CBD Streets Streets in Perth central business district, Western Australia