Como history: the Como Estate, the beach and a 1938 picture theatre

Como was sold to Perth as a riverside getaway, and its beach, jetty and picture theatre still carry that history.

Before the suburb

The City of South Perth records that the Como foreshore was a place for digging holes, known as Beenabup.

How Como got its name

inHerit records that Swan Location 40 was subdivided in 1905 and marketed as the Como Estate. The South Perth Road Board’s boundaries had already been changed in 1898 to recognise Como as a suburb.

How it grew

A large number of blocks were bought in Como between 1904 and 1914. The Como Jetty was first built from 1907, and the tram reached Como in October 1922, ending at Mary Street. Canning Road became Canning Highway in 1937.

Through the 1920s and 1930s Como was a holiday spot, with tea rooms, dance pavilions and camping by the river. The Kwinana Freeway, opened in the late 1950s, cut easy access to the beach and ended much of the ferry and tram traffic.

Places that tell the story

The Como Theatre on Preston Street opened on 4 March 1938, designed by William Leighton with one projection box serving both an indoor theatre and an outdoor picture garden. It was renamed the Cygnet in 1968, reopened as the Como Theatre in April 2024 and is on the State Register. It stayed with its founding family from 1938 until 2017.

Como Beach and its jetty, first built in 1907. The current jetty opened in 1982.

The Como Hotel opened in 1939.

Como today

Como is now a settled residential suburb of houses, units and apartments between Canning Highway and the river.

More about Como

For what Como is like to live in now, read our Como suburb profile. If you own a property in Como and are thinking about selling, start with buyers for your property.

Sources

• inHerit: Como Beach and Jetty
• inHerit: Como Theatre
• City of South Perth: historic thematic framework
• City of South Perth: Aboriginal history
• City of South Perth: Ferry Tram

Top image: The Como Theatre, then the Cygnet, 2008. Photo: Gnangarra, CC BY 3.0 au, via Wikimedia Commons.

Dates and names are drawn from the sources above. Where sources differ, we have said so or given an approximate date.

By Key Performance Real Estate, 338 Beaufort Street, Perth