Heritage Theatre Wrapped Up in Subiaco Shoptop Scheme

Residential developer Westbridge Urban has filed plans for a mixed-use development for the home of a heritage-listed 1930s theatre in WA’s Subiaco. 

The site is question is 484 Hay Street but as part of the development, Westbridge is proposing works to the adjoining theatre at 474 Hay Street. 

The development, currently on exhibition, comprises a nine-storey shoptop building with five commercial tenancies and 71 apartments above. 

If approved, it would include shops, restaurants and a bar that would be integrated with the Regal Theatre, including lifts and outdoor dining. 

Of the apartments, 31 would be one bedroom, 35 two bedroom and 5 as three-bedroom apartments. 

Westbridge, under its Momentum Wealth Projects banner, is also planning  97 parking spaces including 50 in the basement.

The site currently has commercial tenancies in a single-storey building, while surrounding development consists of buildings up to 10 storeys, as well as the nearby the One Subiaco tower at 10 Rokeby Road of 24 storeys. 

A pre-lodgement DA meeting highlighted issues for consideration due to the proposed building being so close to the heritage-listed theatre, and recommended that the mass of bulk and scale of the facade adjoining the Regal be refined. 

The design also took into consideration the Regal Theatre’s fly tower, a modern addition to the State-heritage-listed building, and has attempted to separate its built form from the existing raised section of the theatre.

“The architectural building form has been resolved through the inclusion of art deco style curved building forms [and] reference to industrial elements from the existing building,” a development application submitted to the City of Subiaco said.

▲ The Regal Theatre in 1938. Image: State Library of Western Australia

The Regal Theatre was founded in 1938 by feminist playwright and poet Dorothy Hewett’s father AJ Hewett and her maternal grandfather Ted Coade as a “hardtop-cinema” on the site of the former Coliseum Open Air Gardens. 

Designed by architect William G. Bennett, it was one of the first suburban Perth theatres to show moving pictures and was named for King George VI who had recently ascended the throne. 

It was heritage listed by the State in 1994.

Meanwhile, Western Australia is bucking the trend facing the rest of the country with a rise in ‘missing middle’ and other residential development. 

Subiaco itself has been the site of major developments as well, with plans for a triple tower project by UEM Sunrise filed this week for The Oval in the 35ha Subi East neighbourhood, which has been earmarked for major regeneration by authorities.