View Le Fanu at 2 Salvado Street from the Marine Parade and Salvado Street footpaths. The house and its grounds are private.
Henry Diggins Holmes, general manager of the Western Australian Bank, and his wife Marion bought this beachfront land in 1893 and built a modest six-room holiday cottage. Around 1898-1900, architect Percy William Harrison designed major additions including a ballroom overlooking the ocean, master bedroom, music room and library. The Holmes family were prominent in Perth society and philanthropy, and Marion founded the Ministering Children's League in WA.
The Anglican Church bought Banksia in 1945 and renamed it Le Fanu after Henry Frewen Le Fanu, Bishop of Perth and later Archbishop of Australia. The former ballroom became a chapel and the house was used by church, school and community groups. After returning to private ownership in 1973, however, the building gradually deteriorated and by the 2000s was badly derelict.
New owners bought the property in 2009 and undertook an extensive heritage restoration led by architect Ian Hocking. Salt-damaged limestone was carefully dismantled and reused, while original fireplaces, mosaic tiles and other surviving details were conserved. The house is now once again a private residence and is on the State Register of Heritage Places.
Enjoy it from Marine Parade and Salvado Street and do not enter the private property. Look for the rough limestone walls, red-brick surrounds, Tudor-style gables and the distinctive conical roof over the corner bay - details accumulated as a modest beach cottage grew into one of Cottesloe's landmark homes.
Heritage Council of WA - Le Fanu