Royal Exchange Hotel and Royal Exchange Building

On 1 August 1884 tenders were called for 'the erection of an HOTEL at Toowong' by the important and influential Brisbane Architect Richard Gailey.  Evidence indicates during this period of the early to mid-1880s, it was only the (Toowong) Railway/ Royal Exchange that would have undergone any change.  It is therefore highly probable that this tender was for the Royal Exchange Hotel.

In March of 1885 the property which stood at some 1 rood and 10 perches in size was transferred into the name of Ellen Ryan, wife of Sylvester Ryan.  At the same time a mortgage was registered by the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Company Limited against Ellen Ryan for the large sum of £2500.

During the 1880s Gailey designed a number of important and impressive hotels, in Brisbane which reflected the booming economy of the time.  These include the nearby hotel the "Regatta" (1886), the "Prince Consort" (1887), the "Wickham" (1885) and the "Empire" (1889).

The location for the hotel, along High Street, near commercial district and close to the Railway Station, was important to enable a continuous clientele to frequent the premises.  However "old residents vigorously, but unsuccessfully, opposed the establishment of the Railway Hotel near the Station..."1

The hotel was an important social centre for the locality.  For a number of years the land near the hotel was the location for the Toowong fire brigade.  The Royal Exchange Hotel may be distinguished from the nearby Regatta Hotel which, after the new hotel was erected in conjunction with its close proximity to the river, attempted to attract a recreational clientele. Whereas the Royal Exchange Hotel may well have had a less exclusive, but nevertheless continuous and consistent local clientele.

The most important ownership of this hotel during the early period occurred when leading businessman and politician George Wilkie Gray obtained control of the premises.  By 1894 Gray, through his new brewery company, Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan Gray & Co., had gained control of the lease. In 1907 the property was transferred into the Gray's name, which subsequently set up a pattern of ownership which would last for a number of years. Gray would lease the hotel to Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlan & Gray and Co who in turn would sub-lease the property to a licensed victualler.

Between 1908 and 1928 the hotel was extended on the railway side of the existing building, in addition to two smaller structures further down the High Street side. The initial construction and subsequent improvements indicates that the hotel was a reasonably successful business. Over the years Castlemaine Perkins gradually acquired the land behind the hotel that comprised of residences (Ebor St) and converted the area into a car park to service the hotel. The hotel now comprises a substantial area in the business centre of Toowong.

The hotel has become a popular and convenient meeting place for students from the University of Queensland and is a local landmark within the central business district of Toowong.

Royal Exchange Building

This particular building, now part of the Royal Exchange Hotel complex, was erected in 1927. On 10 January, 1927 tenders closed for "three brick shops and brick garage Toowong" The excepted tender was S.S Carrick of Logan Road. The total cost of the work was £4000.

The building was designed by the architectual firm of Addison & Son G.H.M. This firm, which operated during the period 1919-1928, principally consisted of the partners George Henry Male Addison and his son George Frederick Addison. George Addison senior was important Brisbane architect responsible for such buildings as the Exhibition Building (1890-1) and the Hon. William Stephens' house Cumbooquepa (1890-1). George Addison Senior died in 1922 and the practice was continued on by his son until he was joined by H.S.MacDonald in 1928. 

The owner listed on the building application was Quinlin Gray & Co. (full company name was Castlemaine Brewery and Quinlin & Gray). The property had passed under the control of Queensland Trustees Limited after Gray's death in 1924, but the leases of previous years were still operating.

Occupation of the Royal Exchange Building was soon taken up by Royal Exchange Motor Garage, a store and a dressmaker. The construction of the building would have added to the commercial presence in the centre of Toowong. 

Over the years the building has served a number of uses, with its present use now complimenting that of the hotel.

Royal Exchange Building

A single-storey brick building on a truncated corner site with a prominent castellated parapet and moulded signage panels. A suspended awning is continuous to both street frontages above traditional shopfronts on the front alignment.

1. J.B. Fewings. Arcadian Simplicity: J.B. Fewings Memoirs of Toowong. Ed Helen Gregory. (Brisbane: Library Board of Qld. 1990). P.40

2. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol.9. 1891-1939. Gil Las. 'Gray, George Wilkie'. By Betty Crouchley. (Melbourne; Melbouren Univeristy Press. 1983).  pp.84-85

3. BCC Building Registers

4. Brisbane City Council Water Supply and Sewerage Detail Plans

5. Brisbane Courier 4 August, 1884. p.1.

6. Calthorpe, K.D. & K.Capell. Brisbane on Fire: A History of Firefighting: 1860-1925.(Brisbane; Ken Capall.1997)

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

8. Environmental Protection Agency file on the Regatta Hotel

9. Fewings. J.B Arcadian Simplicity: J.B. Fewings Memoirs of Toowong. Ed Helen Gregory. (Brisbane: Library Board of Qld. 1990)

10. JOL Estate Map Collection and photographic collection

11. Lawson, Ronald 1973, Brisbane in the 1890s: A Study of an Australian Urban Society, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia

12. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

13. Norris, Merle (Compiler). Brisbane Hotels and Publicans Index: 1842-1900. Brisbane History Group. Sources No.6. 1993

14. Queensland Government Gazettes. January 1926 & January 1927

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