Commonwealth Bank of Australia (former)

The site on which the bank is located was one of thirty allotments sold in the Brisbane land sales of 1854. It was acquired by Deed of Grant on 11 May 1854 by William John London. Situated within the Brisbane town limits drawn up in 1846, this allotment was affected by each of the major urban developments on the South Brisbane peninsula; the development of the public transport systems, the declaration of first-class urban areas, and the widening of the major arterial roads [Melbourne & Stanley Streets]. Subdivision of the original blocks was under way by 1870 and allotment 1 section 15, of which this site is a part, was acquired by Patrick Maunsell on 3 March 1871. Once it was sold by Maunsell's widow in 1897, it passed through various hands until the site was acquired by Janet Mearns Pike and Richard Pike in 1912.

The more diversified nature of commerce in the area from that time is reflected in the tenancy of the Pikes Building which was erected on the site by 1917. The State Department of Works leased the site in 1917 and various State offices including the Chief Protector of Aboriginals and the Department of Water Supply were situated there. In 1925, the whole of the site was resumed by the South Brisbane City Council. It passed to the Brisbane Municipal Council in 1927 when part of the land was dedicated for road purposes. Re-subdivision of the land followed and subs. 1 & 2 of allot 1 of section 15 were sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia by the Brisbane City Council in September 1927. The property was taken over by the Commonwealth Trading Bank of Australia in September 1956. 

Centrally situated in one of the three distinct shopping centres which developed in South Brisbane in the early twentieth century, that at Bayard's Corner Melbourne Street, the Commonwealth Bank was ideally placed to take advantage of the industrial and commercial development which was the predominant feature of the early 1920s. Custom would have been further enhanced when the in-bound lane of the tramway in Stanley Street was relocated in Grey Street in 1918. From that time, all in-bound trams from West End, Dutton Park, Ipswich Road, Coorparoo, Greenslopes and Balmoral stopped at Bayard’s corner. 

When the Melbourne Street Railway Station became the terminus for both the interstate line through Kyogle as well as the southside commuter services the business potential was further enhanced. By this time, the bank was both a trading and savings bank and it also had the custom of the Queensland Government. The South Brisbane Branch was one of a number of suburban branches established in the 1920s. Its move into the area reflects the bank's optimism and confidence in the potential of the locale and its desire to capture a share of the area's financial market; a confidence and a desire which it apparently shared with its counterpart and rival, the Queensland National Bank which adjoined. The building, in its aspect and architecture, reflects both the optimism for the future and the challenge which was being posed by the bank, casually dismissed at its inception in 1911 as "a new bank controlled by political amateur financiers." 

The property remained in the ownership of the Commonwealth Bank until the early 1990s. It has been subsequently been used as office space.

Tiled steps lead up between the columns from street level. The main entry doorway is situated centrally in the porch and has a high level window above it. The bays to either side have double hung windows. At the line of the footpath to either side of the porch are windows of the same size located centrally. The walls surrounding these at the lower level are coursed to imitate stone work. Keystones appear above all the window openings in the front facade. A cornice runs above the rows of columns as a string course. The windows on the upper level are in line with those below and are of the same size. Above these runs another cornice line below the plain parapet. The front facade has slightly recessed portions at each edge indicating a respect for the adjoining facade. At the sides of the building the parapet follows the gable form of the terracotta tile roof. Rainwater heads are exposed to each side of the visible right hand elevation. The building and its neighbours give some indication of the importance of the Grey and Melbourne Street intersection as a commercial centre during the inter-war period.