Melrose's Shop (former)

The 1920s was a decade of economic growth throughout Brisbane. The Valley in particular, with its success as a commercial and industrial hub, expanded even further. Electric trams, which passed the busy corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets, brought thousands of shoppers to the Valley. The first stage of the McWhirters building that had been completed in 1912 was extended in 1923. 

Although 130 Wickham Street and its associated buildings were situated away from the main retail hub centred on Brunswick Street, Rhoades furniture warehouse, which was sited on the southern end of this block of shops at 116-24 Wickham Street from circa 1915, drew customers to this end of the Valley. 

During the 1920s this end of Wickham Street was affected by road widening and remodelling at the junction of Ann, Queen and Wickham Streets. In 1923 the Brisbane Municipal Council resumed properties in Wickham Street where it met Ann and Queen Streets for this purpose. In this decade the cutting on Duncan’s Hill was widened opening the Valley even more to the rest of Brisbane. In 1927, Barry Parade was constructed to link up with St Paul’s Terrace on which the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration had recently erected their new convent. 

The undertaking of road widening in the CBD to improve traffic flow, and park creation was part of a broader international town planning movement that was prominent between 1912 and 1920.1 This movement had a significant impact on the Brisbane Municipal Council, leading to the implementation of the City of Brisbane Improvement Act of 1916.  Extensive plans were then detailed for the widening of the CBD’s ‘principal streets, the resumption of extensive areas of land, and the extension of the city’s parks and recreational facilities’.1 The Municipal Council borrowed £1,000,000 and work on the scheme began in 1923. The junction of Ann, Queen and Wickham Streets was completely remodelled in the next few years, creating Centenary Park.

Subdivision of a previous lot occurred in 1924 and the six perch Lot 3 was purchased by Thomas Stirling Melrose and his wife Margaret. There is no evidence of a building application to the Brisbane City Council for replacement of the building although additions and alterations appear in the building register for 1924 and 1927 for Melrose’s building.  Remodelling of the building occurred in 1924 when Addison and Son built a brick extension at the rear, followed by additions and alterations by H. Lanham, builder, in 1927. The post office directory for 1924 lists Thomas Melrose, dealer, as at the new address of 130 Wickham Street, presumably the pre-existing building on the site, having moved from his previous address at 126 Wickham Street. Additions at the rear of the building were designed by architects, Chambers and Ford in 1924 and performed by builder S. S. Carrick of Logan Road.  Construction of a new building on this site appears not to have occurred. Instead, alterations and additions were made to the pre-existing shop (circa 1894) in 1928 by 

H. Lanham, who was the building contractor for 132-134 Wickham Street. 

Furniture dealer Thomas Melrose sold this property at 130 Wickham Street to Arthur Jones and William Hambly in 1951. The firm Jones and Hambly, printers and stationers, operated on this site until the mid-1990s. The building is currently used as a travel outfitters and travel agency.

This narrow, two-storey, dark brown face-masonry commercial building has a low parapet and features two large multi-paned windows with arched, segmented fanlights and modestly featured keystones at the upper level of the main street frontage. Above these windows a rendered and painted horizontal bank features a nameplate. The ground level has shopfronts with new plate glass windows and a suspended awning covers the footpath.

1. Gordon Greenwood and John Laverty, Brisbane 1859-1959: A History of Local Government, Brisbane, 1959, p. 410

2. Ibid, p. 410-11

3. Apperly, Richard, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds. A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture: Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present. North Ryde: Angus & Robertson, 1989

4. Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland, 1922

5. Brisbane City Council Building Registers, 1920s

6. Fortitude Valley Character and Heritage Study. Vol.2. (Heritage Unit, Brisbane City Council. 1995)

7. Brisbane City Council Property Details, BIDS, Building Cards

8. Brisbane City Council WebBASX maps – cadastre, 1946 aerial, 2001 aerial, 2005 aerial

9. Brisbites Suburban Sites, Fortitude Valley @ www.brisbites.com/suburbview.asp accessed 7 Sep 2006

10. Department of Mines and Natural Resources, Certificates of Title

11. Greenwood, Gordon and John Laverty, Brisbane 1859-1959: A History of Local Government, The Council of the City of Brisbane, Brisbane, 1959

12. John Oxley Library Photograph Collection

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

14. Mahlstedt & Son, City of Brisbane Detail Fire Survey, Map No. 30, 1951

15. Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board Survey Maps, Detail Plan No. 151, 1914

16. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1918-29

17. State Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Buildings of Queensland, Jacaranda, Brisbane, 1959

18. Watson, Donald and Judith McKay. A Directory of Queensland Architects to 1940. (St. Lucia: U of Q Press, 1984)

19. Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the Nineteenth Century, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994