Loftus Centre

Statement of Significance

Loftus Centre was constructed in a highly accessible location to be a district and a regional recreational and community facilities complex, by the City of Perth, prior to its breakup and the formation of the Town of Vincent. The Loftus Centre is located adjacent to the Town’s administrative centre and the regional facilities of Leederville Oval and the Leederville campus of Central Metropolitan College of TAFE. It expands and consolidates the great social value of this streetblock which forms the heart of the Town.

Physical Description

This extensive single storey complex houses a recreation centre, library and other associated community facilities. It is a framed structure with metal roof concealed behind parapet walls. It has facades of brick detailed in horizontal bands of contrasting colours. Loggias surround the entry court. The indoor sports venue is double storeyed in its scale. Located at the corner of Vincent and Charles Streets it is well located to serve the Town and highly accessible to the suburbs to the west and the north. Extensive carparks with plantings. None apparent

History

The Loftus Recreation and Community Centre, which cost $4 million to build, was officially opened by the City of Perth's Lord Mayor Chas Hopkins on 27 November 1979. It was constructed on a section of Keith Frame Park, which adjoins Leederville Oval and the Leederville Technical College. This park had been donated to the people of Leederville and contained a large children's play area, remnant bushland and an old cricket pitch where local children used to play. Originally the park extended further east to what are now the southbound lanes of the Loftus Street dual carriage-way. This was the line of the original two-way road. When the street was increased to a dual carriage-way to handle the increased volume of traffic using the thoroughfare, land was excised from the park. The new centre provided meeting places, activity areas, an indoor sports centre, coffee shop and community and function facilities, and child care centre. A non-profit club was initially set up in the Community Centre and a newsletter produced. It also began running children's holiday programmes, a toy library programme for three and four-year olds, art classes and displays, seniors' classes on computing and other areas of interest, general entertainments, a play group and the Town of Vincent's 'Spring Into Life' programme and many others. Four distinctive benches were hand-painted by artist Bronwyn Gray and students from Perth Modern School for its entrance in 1999. Only two remain as the other two were later stolen. The centre was leased circa 2000 to Leisure Australia and more recently the seniors' group, 'Tales of Times Past' has become one of the many groups that continue to meet there. The Loftus Recreation Centre provided facilities for a gymnasium, fitness classes and number of sports, with competitions in various grades (to suit all players) being held in the evening. These competitions included netball and mixed netball, volley ball and soccer. Classes were also available for aerobics and other areas of fitness, junior children's ballet, ballroom dancing and kung-foo. In more recent times the centre has provided after-school care and an Italian ladies' bingo group meets there regularly. The Leederville branch of the Perth City library was moved from its cramped quarters in Mount Hawthorn into a new section on the south side of the building in November 1988. At that time the area was part of the City of Perth and, as a branch library, many of the procedures were centralised through the Perth Library which was located in Council House in St George's Terrace, Perth. This public library was opened in 1957 and a separate junior library in 1960. With the opening of the new Leederville Library at the subject place, two new part-time staff were employed (one librarian and one clerk) and 7,000 extra items were added to the library stock. Online public terminals (OPACs) were also installed, enabling the public to make their own enquiries. This new library provided a library service for an extra 6,600 people with borrower numbers expanding over the next few years. Following the division of the City of Perth in 1994 into four municipalities, the Loftus Recreation and Community Centres and the Leederville Library came under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Town of Vincent. The library was then renamed Vincent Library and in 2000 a Local Studies Librarian was employed and a local history collection was established. The newly-created Town of Vincent constructed its council offices in Leederville on the corner of Loftus and Vincent streets, adjacent to the Loftus Centre. This award-winning building was designed by Peter Hunt of Peter Hunt Architects. In more recent times (between the late 1990s and 2008) increases in staff numbers and changing requirements have necessitated changes to the interior. These have involved some renovations and alterations to the interior layout in order to gain larger and more workable office spaces. In 2007 a major redevelopment of the Loftus Centre commenced and in February 2008 the recently renamed Vincent Library and Local History Centre moved into a newly completed purpose-built extension on the northern side of the Loftus Community Centre. This area had previously been part of the car park for the whole Town of Vincent complex. The new building was again designed by Peter Hunt of Peter Hunt Architects and built by Perkins Builders of Bunbury as a cost of $14 million. The area where the library had previously been was then remodelled to form a state-of-the art gymnasium. An indoor soccer stadium was also constructed on the north-western side of the complex plus an underground car park and the Loftus Community and Recreation centres were upgraded at the same time.

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High degree

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This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.