Phineas Seeligson’s (fmr), Perth (City Loans Office, Commercial Building)

One of the most distinctive buildings on Barrack Street was erected in 1894 for pawnbroker Phineas Seeligson. A three storey, tuck-pointed building in the Federation Romanesque style, it reflects the growing importance of pawnbrokers in the late 19th century.

Phineas Seeligson’s father, Henry, was born on the Polish-German border. The family migrated to first to Sydney, then relocating to Fremantle in the 1870s. Henry established a jewellery business and was a prominent individual in the Jewish community, involved in the foundation of both the Fremantle and Perth Jewish congregations. In 1887, Phineas Seeligson became a licenced pawnbroker operating his business from Murray Street and, like his father, he was also a prominent member of the Jewish population.

Originally pawnbrokers had been associated with criminal activity and working-class drunkenness, but the industry modernised throughout the 19th century to provide short term loans, often to housewives, in exchange for property deposited as security. The inadequate resources for many working-class families during this period made the pawnbroker an essential element for the housewife to solve domestic crises.

Phineas opened another branch of his pawnbroker business in Barrack Street and the building at 143 Barrack Street was purpose built for him. The designer of the place was prominent Western Australian architect Henry Stirling Trigg, the first architect born in Western Australia. He was one of a small number of architects practicing in the colony at this time. Harry and his family were forced to leave Western Australia after he experienced financial difficulties due to his brother’s mismanagement of Harry’s business affairs, and alleged embezzlement.

By 1898 Phineas Seeligson had sold his business to pawnbroker Albert T. Jones, although Seeligson continued to own the building at 143 Barrack Street. Jones ran the business until 1930 with his brother-in-law Ernest Dyson who lived above the shop with his family.

Seeligson died in Mount Lawley in 1935, leaving much of his estate to the Jewish community instructing it be used for charitable purposes, specifically for the “assistance of poor and indigent members of the Jewish community in Western Australia, and for the fuller education of Jewish graduates of the University of Western Australia whose parents are unable to provide for such education”.

After Jones and Dyson moved their business to Beaufort Street, the Café Nanking opened at 143 Barrack Street, advertising up-to-date real Chinese cooking, and private rooms for ladies. The idea of an authentic Chinese restaurant seems to have been a novelty in Perth, although it was noted they were “much favoured in the Eastern States”. However, Café Nanking was short-lived and Behn’s were advertising a ‘Tasty Smallgoods’ shop at 143 Barrack Street by March 1931

The place became a clothing shop after this, before briefly being another pawnbroker and then a naturopath from 1940 to 1944. Around 1949 the building was a branch of the Bank of Australasia, (ANZ after 1951), although it later housed a bridal shop and various other businesses over the years.

Fully restored after 2009 by a new owner, today the ground floor shopfront is a barber’s shop, while the rear accommodates a fashionable grilled sandwich retailer.