Overells Lane

Overells Lane, running off Wickham Street, was one of many service lanes created in Brisbane’s central business areas in the nineteenth century. Marked on land titles from the mid-1860s, the lane became useful as a thoroughfare after the Brunswick Street Railway Station was opened in 1890. The name ‘Overells Lane’ gradually took hold after William Overell relocated his large drapery store to Brunswick Street, fronting the lane, in 1899. Overell’s booming business used the lane for service deliveries. The lane also provided access to various stores during the Valley’s dominance as a shopping precinct in the first half of the twentieth century. Improvements to the lane were proposed in the 1930s but never made, and the lane has since fallen into disrepair. However the lane remains valuable for its connection with the Overells and later Waltons Department Store, and reflects the development of Fortitude Valley through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.