Roe Street is a street in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The central section of the street forms the southern boundary of the suburb of Northbridge, while the eastern end borders the

Perth Cultural Centre The Perth Cultural Centre is an area of central Perth, Western Australia, near the James Street Mall. It is home to a number of cultural institutions including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australian Museum, State Library o ...

to the north and

Perth railway station Perth railway station is the largest station on the Transperth network, serving the Perth central business district, central business district of Perth, Western Australia. It serves as an interchange between the Airport line, Perth, Airport, Ar ...

to the south. The southern approach of the Hamilton Interchange, which connects the

Mitchell Freeway The Mitchell Freeway is a controlled-access highway, freeway in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking Perth (suburb), central Perth with the city of Joondalup. It is the northern section of List of road routes in Western ...

and the

Graham Farmer Freeway The Graham Farmer Freeway is a inner-city freeway in Perth, Western Australia. It links the Mitchell Freeway in West Perth to Great Eastern Highway and Orrong Road in Burswood, providing an east–west bypass of the Perth central business d ...

, passes over the street to the west. Immediately south of Roe Street was the former site of the railway marshalling yards that were originally to the west of Perth station; in the 2010s the

Perth City Link Perth City Link is an urban renewal and redevelopment project in Perth, Western Australia. The projectbounded by the Mitchell Freeway, Wellington Street, the Horseshoe Bridge and Roe Street is on land that was once the Perth/City railway y ...

project sunk and covered the remaining parts of the railway south of Northbridge and opened up the area for redevelopment.

History

The road had a number of factories located on the street; examples include the Michelides Tobacco Factory and a factory for

Peters Ice Cream Peters Ice Cream is an Australian ice cream brand, now a subsidiary of European food firm Froneri. It was originally developed by an expatriate American, Frederick (Fred) Augustus Bolles Peters in 1907, using his mother's recipe. History Pete ...

. For a considerable length of time in the twentieth century it was also associated in the popular imagination in Western Australia as the location of

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

s in Perth. Dubbed "Rue-de-Roe" by the press, fences were eventually erected along the rail line to shield the public from the view of the brothels on the street. Because of the changes in the regulation of prostitution in the state, the brothels have long since gone, and were replaced with other developments. A small section of the street serves as the southern boundary of Perth's Chinatown and features Asian-style street theming. In the 2010s the Perth City Link project removed the vestiges of the railway yard and sunk and covered the

Fremantle railway line The Fremantle line is a suburban railway and service in Western Australia that connects the central business district (CBD) of Perth with Fremantle. History The railway on which the service runs opened on 1 March 1881 as the first suburban rai ...

, creating a large space for redevelopment of the area to the immediate south of the street. Between January 2014 and July 2016, the Roe Street bus station operated near Perth station to facilitate the construction of the

Perth Busport Perth Busport is an underground central bus station in Perth, Western Australia, located underneath Wellington Street. It was officially opened by then Premier of Western Australia Colin Barnett and then Minister for Transport Dean Nalder o ...

at the former

Wellington Street bus station Wellington Street bus station was a Transperth bus station located next to Perth railway station in the Perth central business district, Western Australia from 1973 until 2014. It was demolished to make way for Perth Busport. History Welling ...

site. In December 2016, a new exit onto the street from the southbound direction of the

opened. The exit replaced a previous one on James Street, which was closed to enable the construction of the Charles Street Bus Bridge. In June 2021, work began on revitalising a significant portion of the street to make it more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.

Intersections

References

{{coord missing, Western Australia Streets in Northbridge, Western Australia Streets in Perth central business district, Western Australia Red-light districts in Australia Streets in West Perth, Western Australia