20 Gloucester Street, Spring Hill

Richard Symes Warry purchased subdivisions 3 and 4, totalling 1 rood and 39.25 perches of land, from Dowse on 8 July 1866. Subdivision 3 faced Leichhardt Street (now St Pauls Terrace) while subdivision 4 ran behind this block. On 12 October 1866, Warry mortgaged the land for ₤500 through the Bank of Australia and the money was possibly used for investment purposes. Joseph Buckle bought the two subdivisions on 23 October 1872. Buckle only held onto the land for a short time before disposing of the property to Walter Cook on 4 March 1873. Cook also did nothing with the land before he sold it to John Lloyd Bale on 28 August 1873. Bale further subdivided the land into 16 perch house blocks and sold these from August through to December 1873.

On 18 September 1873, John Walls purchased resubdivisions 3 and 4 of subdivisions 3 and 4 of Allotment 95. Walls, a carpenter, had acquired 16.1 perches of vacant land in Gloucester Street. But Walls already had a residence at 138 Boundary Street, Spring Hill. According to the Brisbane History Group, Walls built twin houses at 20 Gloucester Street (resubdivision 4) and at 16 Gloucester Street (resubdivision 3) as rental properties sometime between 1880 and 1882. A check of the 1883-84 edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories has revealed that by 1883, the eastern side of Gloucester Street contained only four residences. These were “Balgownie Cottage” and “Keith Cottage” located near the corner with Thornbury Street and two unnamed residences occupied by draper’s assistant James R. Jordan and by ironmonger George Cousins. It is assumed that these unnamed residences are the twin houses built by John Walls. 

Walls constructed large two-storey residences that presumably had potential to be converted into flats. Such accommodation was popular with single gentlemen who wished to live close to their workplaces in Brisbane Town. The turnover of residents for Wall’s twin residences was high for, by 1885, master mariner James H. Haselhurst had replaced Jordan as the tenant at 20 Gloucester Street.    

The twin houses remained in the hands of the Walls family for eighty years. When John Walls died on 2 May 1902, his estate passed to his widow Catherine Walls. By 1914, an additional room had been added to 20 Gloucester Street and that, together with some internal alterations, meant that 16 and 20 Gloucester Street were no longer identical houses. Catherine Walls transferred the property to Alexander Walls on 25 May 1920. After Alexander’s death on 14 August 1940, Evelyn Maria Walls who was a spinster inherited the property. Number 20 Gloucester Street ceased its connection with the Walls family, when Marian and Antonio Masci became the new owners on 3 April 1963. A tenuous link was maintained though, because it was Evelyn Walls who provided the mortgage, which enabled Marian and Antonio Masci to buy 20 Gloucester Street. Their obligation to Walls ended on 29 January 1970. 

On 7 January 1974, Harry George Lerrett, John Henry Garde, Christos George Tracey and Sam Georgeson became joint tenants of the property. By 8 December 1981, three of these people had pulled out of their partnership, leaving Tracey as the sole owner of 20 Gloucester Street. In 1993, both 20 and 16 Gloucester Street were identified as having heritage significance in the book Spring Hill Heritage Tour – St Pauls to Gregory Terrace. Erik J. Poole purchased 20 Gloucester Street on 13 January 1997.  The current owners, Marilyn Ann Newton and James Francis Newton took control of the property on 16 January 2003.

1. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, website

2. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

3. Brisbane City Council, Sewerage Plan, 31 October 1914

4. Brisbane City Council’s Central Library, local history sheets

5. Fisher, Rod, Spring Hill Heritage Tour: St Pauls to Gregory Terrace, Kelvin Grove: Brisbane History Group, 1993

6. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of title and other records.

7. John Oxley Library, Brisbane Suburbs – Estate Maps

8. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949