Nothing about London Court is what it pretends to be, and that's precisely why it works. Perth's most famous laneway is not Tudor, not English and not old by the standards it imitates — it was built in 1937, four centuries after the architecture it borrows, by Claude de Bernales, a Kalgoorlie gold financier with an unmatched flair for theatre.

A shortcut with a costume

Functionally, it's a pedestrian arcade linking Hay Street Mall to St Georges Terrace — a thirty-second cut-through office workers use without looking up. Look up. The half-timbered gables, leadlight bay windows and heraldic crests run the full length of the lane, and the detail holds all the way to the rooftop weathervanes shaped as sailing ships.

Wait for the clock

Each end carries a clock worth standing under. On the St Georges Terrace face, St George and the dragon do battle above the dial; on the Hay Street end, knights circle in a miniature joust as the hour strikes. Generations of Perth kids have been held up on shoulders to watch the figures move, and the ritual survives every renovation.

Still a working lane

Between the photo opportunities, the court earns its keep the same way it did in 1937 — small traders: jewellers, a barber, souvenir rooms, coin and stamp dealers that have outlived every retail trend of the past half-century. It's heritage-listed now, which means the costume is permanent.

Next time you cut through, slow down for one minute of it. The whole point of London Court is that somebody in 1937 decided a shortcut should be a show — and 89 years later, the show still runs daily.

Photo: W. Bulach via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).