Michelides Tobacco Factory, Art Deco tobacco factory in Northbridge, Western Australia.
The Michelides Tobacco Factory was a two-story building in Northbridge with geometric patterns and vertical lines typical of industrial Art Deco architecture. Its facade displayed the clean forms and functional design elements that defined manufacturing buildings of that period.
Michelides Ltd built the first stage in 1922 on the corner of Lake and Roe Streets, opened by Premier Sir James Mitchell in October 1922. A two-storey Art Deco extension by Oldham, Boas and Ednie-Brown followed on Roe Street in 1934, and in 1936 the 1922 building was upgraded and joined to it as one structure. Tobacco harvesting ended in late 1959 and cigarette production early in 1960.
The factory's name comes from Michelides Ltd, a Western Australian company that grew tobacco and made cigarettes, moving from hand-rolling to mechanised production to raise its market share. The site later housed Peters Ice Cream and then Tony Barlow Menswear, which traded there for 20 years until 2009.
The building stood at the corner of Lake and Roe Streets in Northbridge. It was demolished in 2014 after the City of Perth approved demolition in January 2014, so no structure remains; visitors can consult the Museum of Perth's social media archive for photographs and campaign material.
After its tobacco operations, the building found new life housing Peters Ice Cream and later Tony Barlow Menswear, demonstrating how industrial structures were repurposed for different commercial ventures. These adaptations show the flexibility of solid Art Deco construction to serve changing community needs over decades.
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