A SELF-GUIDED historic walking trail around North Perth’s town centre launches this week.

The tour reveals how the suburb developed between the early 20th century and World War II and is an initiative of the local town team, North Perth Local. It got funding from Vincent council for the digitally-aided walk, which shows off 16 significant sites.

They’ve created a map available at their website and then each location has a link with research and historic pictures.

This Saturday (September 1) the tour will be launched at 10am at Albert Square on the corner of Albert and Angove Streets, with a special guided tour by local Tom Di Chiera – custodian of the soon-to-reopen, 64-year-old, family-owned sandwich deli Di Chiera Brothers. His dad Antonio and uncle Giuseppi were co-founders of the iconic Italian deli.

Highlights of the history trail include:

• The old North Perth police station, built in 1907 with the “blood and bandages” style of white and red brickworks characteristic of police stations of the day (it’s also seen in the South Perth and Victoria Park stations);

• The Rosemount Hotel, built in 1902 to cater for a growing and thirsty population. Originally built of brick and iron in the federation filigree style, in 1937 a whopping £12,000 was spent extensively renovating it into the art deco style.

• The Rosemount Theatre, opened in 1923. It ran for 30 years before the upstairs gallery was remodelled into a bowling alley, and Rosemount Bowl is still open today making it the oldest bowling alley still operating in WA.

North Perth Local’s website at http://www.northperthlocal.org/walk has the map and all the historic info.