Princess May Reserve

Child Places

• 00842 Film and Television Institute

Statement of Significance

Princess May Reserve, consisting of the stone boundary wall on the north eastern perimeter, Princess May Girls’ School (fmr), Household Management Centre (fmr), Fremantle Boys’ School (fmr), and surrounding grounds has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: the place is important for its role in the development of education in Western Australia, for people from Fremantle and its surrounding districts and, in more recent times, for its adaptation for ongoing community uses; the place contains a very competent, classically derived stone building, with a distinctive belvedere, and a fine example of architecture in the Victoria Tudor manner, with a rich, picturesque roofline and refined details; Fremantle Boys School (fmr) is rare, being one of a small number of colonial buildings to survive in an urban centre; and one of the few in a Victorian Tudor style; the place is associated with a number of eminent chief architects from the Public Works Department, including the state’s earliest architect, James Austin. Others include James Manning, John Grainger, William Hardwick and Hillson Beasley. The place is also associated with George Humble, who taught at the school for its first 25 years; the reserve, and in particular the Fremantle Boys’ School (fmr) and the Princess May Girls’ School (fmr), have high aesthetic values in relation to their design and use of construction materials, as well as being places of high artistic achievement from two separate periods, and, collectively with the Household Management Centre (fmr), they constitute a landmark of significant value to the community; Fremantle Boys School (fmr) was one of the two earliest government-built education institutions in Western Australia, served continually for over a century, and demonstrates, in a physical way, the rapid growth of Fremantle in the last nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, representing over a century of educational architecture; and, Princess May Girls’ School (fmr) and Household Management Centre (fmr) reflect the attitudes to infants and girls in the first half of the twentieth century and provide a close examination of gender differences in educational philosophy and the provision of facilities. (Extracted from the Heritage Council’s Register documentation for the place)

Physical Description

Princess May Reserve includes; Fremantle Education Centre (former Princess May Girls School), the Film and Television Institute (former Fremantle Boys School), Clancy’s Tavern (fmr Household Management Centre) and the surrounding grounds and limestone wall. Refer to Heritage Council of Western Australia's Register of Heritage Places - Register and Assessment Documentation.

History

Refer to Heritage Council of Western Australia's Register of Heritage Places - Register and Assessment Documentation.

Integrity/Authenticity

High degree of integrity (original intent clear, current use compatible, high long term sustainability). High degree of authenticity with much original fabric remaining. (These statements based on street survey only).

Condition

Condition assessed as good (assessed from streetscape survey only).

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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