[1] It covers around half of the larger West End Conservation Area,[1][9] which was placed on the Register of National Estate in 1979.

[5] West End dates back to 1829, when it was selected as the site of the port town of Fremantle for the Swan River Colony.

[5] John Septimus Roe surveyed the area in 1833, with the West End laid out in a grid pattern with High Street at the centre.

The area is an almost intact port city business district with a variety of gold boom era buildings.

[4] A process of gentrification in the early 1990s was accelerated by the 1992 establishment of the University of Notre Dame Australia, which has restored and occupied many of the buildings in the West End.