Griffiths Park, Hilton

Key parts of Hilton – including Griffiths Park – as many residents of Hilton and aficionados of 1940s/1950s town planning theory know, are of enormous town planning and heritage significance.

For example, the Hilton Central Area precinct, as noted by the WA State Heritage Council, is a place of cultural heritage significance within the City of Fremantle ‘as the core of an example of a substantially intact ’Garden Suburb’ dating from the immediate post World War II period.’

Garden Suburbs were, and are, characterised by their curvilinear road layout, parks and centrally located community facilities.

You get the idea quickly when you look at an early subdivision map of Hilton, or Hilton Park as Hilton was known until the ‘Park’ was dropped by the Post Office in 1959. Griffiths Park is the triangular shaped park area shaded in black.

Griffiths Park, which was originally known as Joslin Street Park, was established when the Hilton Park estate was subdivided in the late 1940s/early 1950s by the State Housing Commission.

Here’s another view which shows Joslin Street, as well as Nicholas Crescent and Griffiths Place, the latter now giving its name to the Park.

After a recent upgrade of the children’s playground and a ‘re-opening’ of the Park, Griffiths Park surely is everything, and possibly even more than, the Garden Suburb designers had in mind!

Here is a Gallery of photographs of Griffith Park today.