Gordon & Gotch Building (former)

In 1912, the Gordon & Gotch branch office in Brisbane became a limited liability company named Gordon & Gotch (Queensland) Limited. In 1919, a separate company, Gordon & Gotch Australasia was formed when the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane branch offices were amalgamated into a single entity. The company expanded into publishing, including textbooks and magazine distribution, and became a major player in both the Australian and Queensland publishing industry. Indeed, as of 2006, Gordon & Gotch is Australia’s largest independent magazine distributor. 

This building was erected in 1927 during this period of expansion. Despite additions to its Queen Street building in 1909, the company’s premises was not able to meet its needs. Consequently, a new building was planned.  The architectural firm of Atkinson and Conrad was given the task of designing the building and builder Walter Taylor was awarded the contract for the construction. The company purchased the site for their new building on 7 October 1926. 

Atkinson and Conrad (1918-27) was one of the more prominent architectural firms operating in Brisbane in this period. The firm was responsible for a number of significant buildings in Brisbane, including the Courier Mail Building (Queen Street), the Masonic Temple (Ann Street), the Queensland Deposit Bank & Building Society building (Albert Street), Pioneer House and Invicta House (both in Edward Street).  Walter Taylor is best known for the construction of the Indooroopilly Bridge, which bears his name.  Indeed, the local ward that includes Indooroopilly is named ‘Walter Taylor’ after the builder.

The building was designed to support eight storeys but only six were actually constructed.  The building was described at the time as featuring “glazed bricks of imposing design” and was considered to be “practically fire-proof”.1 A rear sprinkler tank assisted with the building’s fire protection. Other notable features were the ornamental panels below the windowsills together with the entrance doors; both made from Queensland copper. For Gordon & Gotch, their new building was to “be a fitting memorial of fifty years of progress”.1 The building was completed in 1927, at a cost of approximately £30,000.

The new Gordon & Gotch Building was part of an interwar building boom within Brisbane’s CBD. The improved economic conditions and buoyed business confidence contributed to one of Brisbane’s most significant building booms.  As a result of the building boom, and subsequent concentration of commercial premises in the inner city, the CBD achieved a greater density.  Following the opening of Brisbane to free settlement in 1842, what would become known as the CBD contained a mix of residential and commercial buildings Businesses were clustered in particular street precincts, with the primary retail strip located in Queen Street between George and Edward Streets.  As the city’s population grew, so did the concentration of commercial buildings.  The emergence of public transport infrastructure in the 1880s and 1890s – in particular trains and electric trams  – encouraged suburban expansion, and the amount of housing contained within the original town limits steadily decreased.  This process reached its apogee during the 1920s, especially with the advent of the motorcar, sales of which increased dramatically in this period. Indeed, the CBD landscape fixed in this period did not substantially change until the late 1960s. Brisbane’s newspapers touted the 1920s building boom as a sign of Brisbane's coming of age as a modern city. In 1927, The Daily Mail estimated that £2,280,000 was being spent on building construction within the CBD and that this was a large amount of investment capital when viewed in proportion to the size of the CBD.1 During the interwar period, there are known to have been at least 89 new buildings constructed in the CBD while many other older buildings were extended or refurbished. More than half of the interwar buildings have since been demolished. Gordon & Gotch sold the building in 1957 to Wills Gilchrist & Sanderson Pty Ltd.

As with most commercial premises within the CBD, the Gordon & Gotch Building has undergone a number of internal changes over the years to accommodate the requirements of its different tenants. Brisbane City Council approved alterations to the building in 1958, 1961, 1968 and 1981. The exterior and interior of the ground floor, in particular, has been altered from its original appearance due to its conversion in 1980 into a restaurant and nightclub.  

The Brisbane History Group identified the Gordon & Gotch Building as a part of Brisbane’s commercial heritage in 2002, when they included it in their publication Walking Tours – Brisbane’s Commercial Heritage 1900-1940.

The façade is symmetrical with an ornamental cornice defining the ground floor. It has contrasting panels below the windowsills and its entrance doors are made with Queensland copper. 

The Gordon & Gotch Building has undergone some changes over the years to accommodate the requirements of its different tenants. Particularly, the ground floor has been altered from its original appearance due to its conversion in 1980 into a restaurant and nightclub. 

1. J.V.D. Coutts (ed.), The Architectural & Building Journal of Queensland, 10 January 1927, p.73

2. “Then and Now”, The Queensland Magazine, October 1925, pp.15 & 36

3. The Daily Mail, 17 June 1927

4. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, website, post-1946 building cards

5. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

6. Brisbane City Council, Sewerage Map 1913

7. Brisbane History Group, Walking Tours – Brisbane’s Commercial Heritage 1900-1940, Brisbane, Brisbane History Group, 2002

8. Coutts, J.V.D. (ed.), The Architectural & Building Journal of Queensland, 1927

9. Department of Natural Resources, Queensland Certificates of Title and other records

10. John Oxley Library, photographic collection.

11. John Oxley Library, newspaper clippings files

12. Mahlstedt & Son, City of Brisbane Detail Fire Survey, Map No. 22,1951

13. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

14. “Then and Now”, The Queensland Magazine, October 1925

15. Watson, Donald & McKay, Judith, A Directory of Queensland Architects to 1940, Brisbane, Fryer Memorial Library, 1984