St Georges Terrace (colloquially known as "The Terrace") is the
main street in the city of
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. It runs parallel to the
Swan River and forms the major
arterial thoroughfare through the
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...
.
Its western end is marked by the
Barracks Arch near
Parliament House across 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 ...
; the eastern end joins
Adelaide Terrace 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 cathedral in the UK, or (occasionally) college choir in Britain and Ireland. The vicars choral w ...
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 streets that descend southerly towards
Perth Water all provide views of the
Swan River, including
Barrack Street,
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 (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 (AMP Building, 1975 to 1976),
Allendale Square (77 St Georges Terrace, 1976 to 1977),
St Martins Tower (44 St Georges Terrace, 1978 to 1988),
108 St Georges Terrace, 1988 to 1992) and
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
(152-158 St Georges Terrace, tallest since 1992).
A number of other buildings are along the Terrace:
*
100 St Georges Terrace
*
Council House
A council house, corporation house or council flat is a form of British Public housing in the United Kingdom, public housing built by Local government in the United Kingdom, local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing ...
*
Brookfield Place
*
Christian Brothers' College
*
The Cloisters
*
London Court
*
Old Perth Boys School
*
Palace Hotel
*
Perth Concert Hall
*
QV.1
*
St George's House
*
Technical School
A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocationa ...
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 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 (30 March 1930 – 10 May 2023) was an Australian musician, television personality, painter, and actor. He used a variety of instruments in his performances, notably the didgeridoo and the Stylophone, and is credited with the inventi ...
, was removed after Harris was convicted of sexual assault.
Intersections
See also
Further reading
* Austen, Tom (1988) ''The Streets of Old Perth'' St George Books.
* Edmonds, Jack (editor) (1979) ''Swan River colony : life in Western Australia since the early colonial settlement, illustrated by pictures from an exhibition mounted by West Australian Newspapers Ltd. as a contribution to celebrations for the state's 150th year'' Perth: West Australian Newspapers.
* Stannage, C. T (1979) ''The people of Perth : a social history of Western Australia's capital city'' Perth: Carroll's for Perth City Council.
References
External links
{{Perth CBD Streets
Streets in Perth central business district, Western Australia