Hotels/guildfordhotels.html
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Guildford Hotels
Cleikum Inn, Dodds, West Guildford (Bassendean) - not extant
Devenish's hotel, 10 James Street - aka Devenish Inn, Liverpool Arms, Royal Hotel, The First Guildford Hotel - c. 1830 building not extant - c. 1850 building now on site
Guildford Hotel (Cowcher, near Bridge Street) - not extant - existence tbc?
Guildford Hotel (Jones/Jecks, Rummer, aka Two Sisters hotel) - on the site of the present Woodbridge Hotel
Guildford Hotel - modern (1886/1915) building at 159 James Street, cnr Great Eastern Highway
Jones's Inn aka York Hotel - see Woodbridge Hotel
Lockridge {aka Lockeridge} Hotel is now in Bassendean - which used to be West Guildford
Rose and Crown, 1841, 105 Swan Street
Royal Hotel - the first name of Devenish's hotel
Stirling Arms, 1852, 117 James Street, cnr Meadow Street
Two Sisters was for a couple of years c. 1857 the name of the hotel on the present Woodbridge Hotel site - when it was run by sisters Elizbeth and Caroline, nee Edwards
Williams' hotel - not extant
Woodbridge Hotel, 1902, 50 East Street
Which was the first hotel in Guildford?
Bourke 1987:
In May and June [1830] allotments were assigned to George and Sarah Best, Dr Robert Foley and Dr George Cowcher. Dr Cowcher had arrived in the colony with a very meagre supply of goods and capital. He was apparently one of those whom Stirling had described as ‘helpless and inefficient’, for it was not long before he was forced to apply to the Government for a loan, and for several years he and his family lived mainly on rations supplied by the Government. After settling in Guildford with his large family he began building a temporary house which, when completed, he opened to the public as the ‘Guildford Hotel’. This was the first hotel in Guildford. (Bourke 1987: 46; emphasis added)
Tuckfield 1971:
If one excludes Dodd's Cleikum Inn, which was situated on the Bassendean side of the Swan river (near the bridge), then it seems that Williams' inn could have been the first in Guildford. However, to keep the record straight—early in 1834 Williams left Guildford to take up the licence of the Perth Hotel, and the society then transferred their venue to Dodd's Cleikum Inn. (Tuckfield 1971: 76; emphasis added)
Hasluck 1927:
The Old Inns
The centre of the civic life was at the east end of the town, outside the townsite, at Woodbridge, where was situated Jones’s Inn. The exact location of this inn I have not been able to decide definitely. A succession of partnerships among the families of Jones and Jecks kept hostelries under the names of Jones’s, Jones’s Inn, Woodbridge and the Guildford Hotel. The Guildford Hotel, which was kept by Jonathan Jones about 1840, stood in the Woodbridge Estate, on a site about three hundred yards east of the present East Guildford railway station. The ground on which it stood has since been cut away for a brick yard, but the stump of an old fig tree, which may be seen from the train, on the right hand side of the line, travelling eastwards, marks the site of the old establishment. It is not definite whether this was the same inn that was known by the names of Jones’s and of Woodbridge at an earlier date, the inn which was first established by Walter Jones, at which the Agricultural Society held its meetings for many years, where stock sales were held, licensing courts were conducted and where nearly everything of importance in the town took place.
Jones’s Inn was not the oldest in the district. The first inn was the Cleikum Inn at West Guildford. It has been stated that this inn was situated on the site of the building formerly owned by Mr. J. T. Short, that is on the bank of the river between the traffic bridge and the railway bridge. Contemporary maps and the evidence of old residents, who did not see the complete building but remember its ruins clearly, establish the fact that it was situated on the opposite side of the road, on the site now occupied by “Abbotsford,” the residence of Mr. Wicks. This inn was the first meeting place of the Agricultural Society in Guildford.
A third inn was established by Mr. Devenish in James-street on the site now occupied by the residence of Mr. Clarke. The old inn originally comprised a pug building standing on the east side of the existing building and another detached pug building at the rear for bedrooms. It was famed for its beer because the water in the well sunk on the premises was supposed to be peculiarly suited to brewing. This inn was opened in 1840 and within a few months of its opening the Agricultural Society again transferred its favours and made it its meeting place. At these Agricultural Society meetings, it will be remembered, business was always followed by a dinner. Of the first meeting at Devenish’s it was reported that the gentlemen present were much pleased with the entertainment provided, which was on a most liberal scale.
A fourth inn—the Rose and Crown—was opened by Thomas Jecks in July, 1841. It stood on the same site in Swan-street as the building which was known as the Rose and Crown until its delicensing last year. Thomas Jecks had previously been associated with the Jones family at Woodbridge. Besides being one of the earliest inn-keepers he opened one of the first stores in the town. (Hasluck 1927: 7-8; emphasis added)
Bourke:
In the year 1833 there were two inns in Guildford. These were George Williams’ inn at ‘Garden Hill’ above the town’s public boat-landing place, and the ‘Cleikum Inn’, kept by James Dodds, situated above the ferry landing at West Guildford. In January 1833 the members of the Kangaroo Hunt Club of Western Australia held a dinner at the ‘Cleikum Inn’. George Williams’ inn was used for meetings and dinners of the Agricultural Society until the end of 1833, when the venue was changed to the ‘Cleikum Inn’. (Bourke 1987: 114) ...
In December 1833 an Act was passed by the Legislative Council to regulate the licensing of public houses in the colony. A licensing meeting was held at Guildford the following year, and the list of licences published in January 1835 included ‘victualler’s licences’ for the ‘Cleikum Inn’, and for the ‘Royal Hotel’ in Guildford. The ‘Royal Hotel’ was kept by William Devenish, a former servant of Thomas Peel. He had acquired two allotments in Mangles Street, on one of which he had built a mud and thatch cottage. His hotel was the longest lasting of Guildford’s early inns. The original name, ‘Royal Hotel’, was forgotten and the business was usually referred to as ‘Devenish’s Hotel’.
A new inn, originally called the ‘York Hotel’, was established by Walter Jones in 1835. It was situated on the York road just beyond the Guildford townsite on part of the ‘Woodbridge’ estate. The name ‘York Hotel’ fell into disuse and the inn was usually referred to as ‘Jones’ Inn’ or the ‘Woodbridge Inn’. Government auctions of sheep and cattle were held there from time to time in the 1830s. In 1838 Walter Jones retired, and the business was carried on by his son Abraham, in partnership with Thomas Jecks. (Bourke 1987: 115)
References and Links
Bourke, Michael J. 1987, On the Swan: a History of Swan District, Western Australia, UWAP for the Swan Shire Council, ISBN 0-85564-258-0.
Carter, Jennie 1986, Bassendean: A Social History 1829-1979, Bassendean Town Council.
Hasluck, Paul 1927, 'Guildford: 1827-1842', Early Days, vol. 1, part 2: 1-19.
Tuckfield, Trevor 1971, 'Early colonial inns and taverns', Part 1, Early Days: Journal and proceedings of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society, 7, 3: 65-82; 1975, Part 2, Early Days, 7, 7: 98-106.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 22 August, 2020 and hosted at freotopia.org/hotels/guildfordhotels.html (it was last updated on 28 November, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.