MAYLANDS HISTORICAL AND PENINSULA ASSOCIATION

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The Albany Bell Castle at 1 Thirlmere Road in Mt Lawley is a landmark on the Mt Lawley/Maylands stretch of Guildford Road.

It is listed as Heritage Place 2429, gained a permanent listing on the Register of the National Estate on 28 Sep 1982, was classified by the National Trust on 07 Mar 1989, permanently listed on the State Register on 01 July 1994 and listed in the Municipal Inventory adopted on 17 June 1997  by the City of Bayswater, the City of Bayswater’s  2006 Municipal Inventory and its draft 2019 Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places both list the Albany Bell Castle, 1 Thirlmere Road, .

History of Albany Bell Castle

Its land, once part  of the Pineapple Estate was purchased in 1909 by  Peter Albany Bell, a well-known confectioner and tea-room proprietor, who had 11 tea-rooms in Perth, three in Kalgoorlie and opened the first cafeteria in Western Australia.

The building was designed to provide a pleasant working environment for workers producing cakes, pastries, ice, icecream and confectionery for shops around Perth. It was constructed between 1914 and 1919.

Ownership of the building was transferred to West Australian Newspapers during World War II, so that the company could continue newspaper production if its St Georges Terrace premises were bombed.

After the war, West Australian Newspapers sold the building to the Australian government.

The Civil Aviation Authority later sold the building to Perth investors Hugo Bombara and Camillo Dellamaddelena for $1.04 million.

The building is now part of an apartment complex.

For more information

See:

  • the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on Peter Albany Bell (http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bell-peter-albany-5197),
  • City of Bayswater 2006 Municipal Inventory  (MHPA holds a copy),
  • our Albany Bell Castle Flickr album for digitised images and  other digitised information,
  •  our DVD of Terry Gaunt’s 2012 presentation to our Association about the Albany Bell Castle, and
  • the two glasses from the Albany Bell Cafe presented to our Association by John Viska of North Perth.

Maylands Historical and Peninsula Association acknowledges the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work, live, and learn. We acknowledge that we tell the stories of Noongar Country and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this website may contain images or names of people who have passed away.