26 Braeside Terrace, Alderley

Mabel Willers raised a mortgage with the State Advances Corporation in August-September 1935.  Unfortunately the BCC Building Application Register that covers this period is missing but in November 1936 M. B. Willers of Braeside Terrace, Alderley applied to have a brick garage built; indicating that the house was complete.

According to Michael Kennedy, “many Brisbane architects designed picturesque houses with an ‘Old English’ or ‘Tudor’ atmosphere” in the late 1920s and 1930s”. While “generally they were large houses for wealthy clients in the fashionable suburbs of Ascot, Clayfield, Hamilton and Coorparoo”, Braeside Terrace with its expansive views of the city and surrounds was becoming a sought after address in the local area. Originally named Alderley Terrace, the road was formed around 1929. Earlier, residents were documented in the Post Office directories as “off Banks St”. While there are scant records for residents’ occupations, Mabel’s husband Charles was probably a co-owner of Willett and Hallt Engineers in 1934, and Robert Cummings, an influential architect, had his self-designed home built here in 1935. As an outstanding and uncommon local example of ‘Tudor’ architecture, this house documents the early development of Braeside (Alderley) Terrace as an elite address in the local area.

1. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

2. Brisbane City Council Building Registers & Building Cards

3. Brisbane City Council Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Detail Plans

4. Department of Natural Resources, Certificates of Title

5. ‘Making the First Home’, The Telegraph, 7 December 1937

6. Kennedy, Michael Owen. ‘Domestic Architecture in Queensland Between the Wars’, Master of the Built Environment (Building Conservation) thesis, University of New South Wales, 1989

7. Lawrence-Drew, Margaret. Lucas and Cummings Architects. Unpub Thesis 1986. Bachelor of Architecture. University of Qld

8. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1901-1939