No.4 Substation

Statement of Significance

The Electricity Sub-Station at 31 Stuart Street is a striking landmark in the Federation/Interwar Functionalist style, with its vigorous combination of blood and bandages on the ground floor, articulated red brick upper floors and striking upper level loggias at either end of the structure, prominently located in an area of former manufacturing dependent on electricity supply.

Physical Description

The sub-station is an imposing four storey red building capped with a hipped gambrel roof clad with corrugated iron. The ground floor has a strong blood and bandages pattern to visually anchor the main façade. The main façade is detailed with pilasters forming full height bays between which are recessed blind window openings, with rendered lintols and key stones. At either end of the sub-station is a two storeyed annexe, with bullseye detail, surmounted by a rendered loggia in an Interwar Chicoagoesque style. Sub-stations of this distinction are rare. A twin structure in West Perth was sold in the late 1980s and substantially adapted, so that it has a low degree of integrity. Extensive internal

History

Stuart Street was named after Perth City Councillor Stuart of the Governor Broome Hotel in William Street, Perth. However, in Wises' Post Office Directories for 1916 it was spelt as 'Stewart'. The Stuart Street Electricity sub-station was constructed between 1914 and 1916 as the northern sub-station on the 6,000-volt ring main cable. It was known as the Perth City Council Electricity Sub-Station No. 4. The first electricity power station was constructed at East Perth by the Perth Electric Tramway Limited to supply power for the City's tram system. In 1912 the State Government took over the tramway system and the power station. A new power station was constructed at East Perth and was operational in December 1916. This power station along Summers Street is still extant today, however was de-commissioned in 1981 and is still waiting a new use. The ring main cable cable ran from the power station, through the centre of the city to West Perth, with three sub-stations along the route, and then zig-zagged its way north-east to the City of Perth municipal yard on Stuart Street, on the edge of Lake Henderson (Robertson Park), where the northern sub-station was sited, before running almost due-east back to the power station. The sub-stations converted the high-voltage alternating current generated by the power station to direct current. All lines connecting to the ring main did so at the sub-stations. The sub-stations on the ring main were the property of the City of Perth at this time, while the tramway sub-stations were the property of the Railways, Tramways and Electricity Supply Department. The ring main was designed by Mertz and McLellan and was installed by Callenders Cable & Construction Company Ltd. It is not certain if Callenders constructed the sub-stations or if that work was put out to tender. The West Australian power system ran on 254 volts, and this was not reduced to 240 volts until the 1940s, at which time also, conversion to alternating power for the end-user was undertaken, resulting in the replacement of large amounts of equipment within the sub-stations. In 1949, the last year of Wise's Post Office Directories, Sub-Station No.4 was listed in the block between Palmerston and Fitzgerald streets along with Westralian Farmers Co-op Ltd (Wescobee), Dairy Farmers' Co-op Co Ltd and Pascomi's. Wescobee Honey (as it was known), the Co-oop (dairy produce merchants) and Pascomi's (milk vendors) were all long-term businesses and very well known in the area. The Western Australian electricity system was until recently owned and controlled by Western Power Corporation, formerly known as the State Electricity Commission. In 2008 Synergy was WA's largest energy retailer with around 890,000 customers in the south-west of the State.

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High degree

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