Perth Voice Interactive

RENOVATIONS at Luna Palace cinemas in Leederville have uncovered a lost history of the art deco building.

Workers recently stripped back red paint on the awning to reveal a faded sign reading “library,” a forgotten use of the interwar-era shops just to the north of the main Luna corner buildings.

Luna’s Tony Bective said he’d never heard of a library being in that spot and put out a call for information.

Vincent’s local history centre soon got on the case, and senior librarian Julie Davidson uncovered early records showing the place used to be known as a “Universal Library”.

Records are scarce as they weren’t advertising in newspapers of the day, but they operated from at least 1940 to 1949, when the directory stopped publishing.

The privately owned library was apparently a predecessor to the video rental store, charging customers a fee to borrow books.

Interviews with town elders suggest the shop was later called the “Clark’s Paperback Library” in the early 1950s.

Bill Smith lived on Carr Street for a spell starting in 1945, and his oral account recalls “a lending library… I’m not sure whether it was open in the day time because me and my mother used to go there sort of six o’clock at night.

“That’s how I learnt… when I learnt to read a book. And I would presume that you had to pay. Would have been only six pence or four pence or something like that perhaps.”

Both Mr Bective and Ms Davidson are keen to find more information or hear memories of the old libraries, so if you have any info give the Voice a call on 9430 7727 and we’ll put you in touch.

by DAVID BELL