11 Drummond Street, Alderley

Reginald James Knight bought subdivisions 5 and 6 comprising 2 roods 11.3 perches in November 1944. He had a house designed by architect Horace Driver in 1945 and construction began soon afterwards. The previous year Driver had designed the commercial premises (now demolished) for Knight’s chemical engineering works in Earle St, Windsor. Postwar restrictions, that limited floor areas to a maximum of 1250 square feet, and shortages of building materials, meant that the whole design could not be completed initially. A first stage was begun in 1945-46. Work was completed in a second stage by 1952 during which time Knight reputedly lived on site and manufactured concrete bricks on site while carrying out construction work. A garage was added in 1964.

Following the death of Reginald James Knight the house was sold by Knight's widow in 1972 to David and Gwenneth Maddern. The current owners bought the house in 1988 and engaged architect Charles Ham to design an extension and to adapt the earlier section of the house. Ham's design extended the house in a sympathetic manner and avoided interfering with the original fabric. The renovations included underpinning and foundation work, and a swimming pool and car parking bay were added soon after the extensions.

It is evident from the plans kept by the Knight family that the renovations and extensions were “simply added to the earlier sections in a manner … rendered to match the existing in other parts of the house” designed by Horace Driver. Horace Driver was born in Brisbane in 1902 and died in 1982. He was an articled pupil of architects Chipps and Griffin in Brisbane between 1919-1922 and a draftsman at Hall and Prentice from 1922-25. Driver was part of the team assembled by them from 1921 to design and document Brisbane’s City Hall. He achieved his Diploma of Architecture (Qld) in 1924 and became an Associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1926. He went to the United States in 1925 and was employed in architects’ offices in San Francisco and Chicago during 1925-27. He studied at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, New York from 1927-30. Here he was awarded several Beaux Arts Institute medals, including the French Government’s annual medal for best student in 1929.

Now an accomplished architect, Driver returned to Brisbane where he became a registered architect in Queensland and qualified for the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1930, commencing his practice in Brisbane in 1931. During the 1930s Driver designed a number of brick houses and flats that displayed the eclectic American styles of domestic architecture that were popular at the time. 

During his time at the Beaux Arts Institute, Driver received traditional training that enabled him to embrace modern international styles emphasising simplification of form and the elimination of ornament. Breaking with the architectural traditions of the past, modernist buildings were simple and unornamented, and commonly featured glass, concrete and steel, and functional and logical floor plans. The clean lines and plain surfaces of the buildings consisted of simple geometric shapes that mirrored the internal functions of the rooms. 

According to Andrew Gildea’s exposition of Driver’s work in his bachelor of architecture thesis, Driver brought “an understanding and mastery [of the new styles] gained through work and study” overseas to his Brisbane practice. His designs for R. J. Knight record “a strong move away from his more rigid earlier work” and display “a confident manipulation of form”. Both the commercial premises and the Drummond Street residence use curved walls to break the rigidity of the strong rectangular shapes in the buildings. The streamlined horizontal lines of the first stages of the house demonstrate the qualities of Driver’s incorporation of early modernist architecture. Apart from a few designs for established clients, Driver’s practice from 1947 was predominantly commercial, featuring new power stations for the Queensland Electrical Commission, aged care facilities and temples for the freemasons, and a number of churches. 

Work carried out on the property subsequent to the alterations and additions in 1988 is not significant. The garage built in 1964 was demolished and replaced with a new garage in 2004. A new tennis court, fence, swimming pool and retaining walls have been constructed on the property since 1988. 

The illustrations below from 11 Drummond Street: An Examination of the Fabric of the House and a Reappraisal of its Cultural Significance by Richard Allom of Allom Lovell Architects, Brisbane, show the original parts of the building.

1. Allom Lovell Architects 11 Drummond Street Alderley: an examination of the fabric of the house and reappraisal of its cultural heritage significance. July 2010

2. Richard Apperly (et al), A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian architecture Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1989

3. ‘Beaux-Arts architecture’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaux-Arts_architecture. accessed 29/07/2009

4. Black, C. Notes from conversation with owner Margaret Perel, 17 August 1998

5. Brisbane City Council. Building Card M020-066-006. 11 Drummond Street

6. Brisbane City Council. Department of Works. Building Operations. 31st October 1945

7. Brisbane City Council. Properties on the Web. Applications / Site History. 11 Drummond Street

8. Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit & B. Buchanan Conservation Study of Brisbane City Hall

9. Department of Natural Resources. Historical Titles. Lots 5/6 RP 57126

10. Gildea, Andrew. Horace George Driver Architect 1902-1982 Beaux-Arts to Our House. Bach of Arch thesis, Dept of Architecture, U of Qld, St. Lucia. 1988

11. Job, W. Report on proposed heritage listing of Drummond Street, Alderley

12. Kennedy, Michael Owen. Domestic Architecture in Queensland Between the Wars. Unpub Thesis. Master of Built Environment. 1989

13. ‘Modern architecture’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture. accessed 29/07/2009

14. RAIA (Qld) Buildings of Queensland, Jacaranda Press, 1959

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