report on the hotel appeared in the Western Mail in July: The hotel was opened on 8 July 1886, but the event received only a brief sentence in the local newspaper with the comment that the place "seems to be favoured with a fair share of public patronage". An advertisement that appeared in the Western Mail in October 1886, describes the hotel as having private dining rooms, special suites of rooms, sample rooms for commercial travellers, plunge and shower baths, a splendid billiard room fitted with one of Alcock’s best tables, and good stabling and loose boxes with an attentive ostler in attendance. The second class accommodation mentioned in the earlier description was also referred to. Fire On 10 February 1894, around midnight, a fire broke out in a group of shops in a galvanised iron building immediately adjoining the Imperial Hotel to the north. These shops had been there since at least 1889. The shops were Hillman & Co’s furniture and upholstery warehouse where the fire started, and north, Mr Lewis’s tailoring and fabrics establishment. A crowd of several hundred gathered and were unable to do anything about the shops but were able to prevent the fire from burning down the Imperial Hotel. The flames broke through a window into one of the bedrooms but “they were successfully combated”. “The billiard room below would appear to have suffered to a greater extent the walls being damaged together with a number of billiard cues, balls etc. Fortunately the wind was blowing the flames away from the hotel otherwise the main building would have suffered to an alarming extent. Furniture was removed out into the street, the spirit room emptied, while horses and vehicles were taken from the stables and placed in safety away from the premises.” Charles Playter Charles Playter normally lived in North Fremantle but was a lodger at the Imperial Hotel in February 1898. He was at the time working as a draughtsman with the Railways Department. At his home in North Fremantle, on a hot night, Playter was used to stepping out through his window onto the verandah so he could breathe the cool air. This night at the Imperial Hotel, it was very hot, so Playter stepped out through the window to discover that there was no verandah and no balcony. He fell to the ground and suffered serious injuries. Next morning, Playter was found on