Royal Bank of Queensland (former)

The Royal Bank of Queensland was one of six local banks and building societies, established during the period 1863-87, as safeguards for maintaining Queenslanders’ control over their colony’s finances. The other financial institutions were the Bank of Queensland (1863-66), the Queensland National Bank (1872-1948), the Queensland Deposit Bank and Building Society Ltd (1886-1931), the Federal Building Land and Investment Society United and Deposit Bank (1887-1931) and the Brisbane Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society (1874-1970).

The impetus for the Royal Bank of Queensland came from thirteen prominent local businessmen and politicians, including Members of the Legislative Assembly William Miles, Francis Kates and William Villiers Brown.  A prospectus for the Bank was published in 1885 and the Bank commenced operations on 2 February 1886 from leased offices at the corner of Creek and Elizabeth Streets. Griffith’s political ally, James Thomas Walker, became the Bank’s first manager and when Walker had to leave Queensland in 1887 to attend to family matters, Griffith’s brother Edward became the Bank’s second manager. Griffith’s brother-in-law, F.M. Lascelles, became one of the Bank’s auditors. The Royal Bank of Queensland started with four branches in Charters Towers, Gympie, Ipswich, Townsville and an agency in Morvern. By 1887 the number of branches had expanded to nine, located in places as diverse as Warwick, Rosewood, Croydon and Rockhampton.  

The Bank’s success, driven by Queensland’s 1880s economic boom, prompted it to expand by opening additional branches in Brisbane in 1888. These were at 458-460 George Street, Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley, the corner of Boundary and Vulture Streets in South Brisbane (now West End) and at the corner of Logan and Cleveland Roads in Woolloongabba (now Stones Corner). In 1891, the Bank moved 

headquarters to its new building at 121 Queen Street. By the early 1890s, the strength of the Royal Bank of Queensland was such that its assets of £1.4 million, when combined with those of the Queensland National Bank and the Bank of North Queensland, accounted for over half of Queensland’s banking assets and 8% of Australia’s banking assets.1  

The choice of sites for the Bank’s Brisbane branches was dictated by the location of Brisbane’s main retail precincts in the late 1880s. The opening of Brisbane’s first railway station in Roma Street in 1873 influenced the development of the western (upper) end of George Street as a shopping precinct. This spurred projects such as the erection of the new Grosvenor Hotel at the Ann Street corner during 1881-82 and the Transcontinental Hotel in 1883-84 near the intersection of George and Roma Streets. Between these two hotels, a number of modest two-storey commercial buildings were erected for diverse businesses such as Sleath’s music store, Langley’s bootshop and tailors Duncalfe & Co. These shops serviced not only the staff and clientele of the nearby railway station and goods yards but also the people attending the Brisbane Municipal Markets that had been relocated to Roma Street in 1884. The location of a Royal Bank of Queensland branch on George Street in 1888 was indicative of the further development of this important precinct. The commencement of a George Street tram service in 1897 brought more customers to the shops there. From 1901 retailers McDonnell & East, operating from a succession of George Street buildings, dominated this precinct.     

The building leased by the Bank at 458-460 George Street was built in 1885 as an investment property for Terence Byrne, of Mitchell. Prominent Brisbane architect Richard Gailey designed the two-storey masonry building which accommodated two separate shops. Flora Murphy’s fruit shop and the Railway Coffee Tavern initially occupied these. The following year, D. Astill, bootmaker and a restaurant operated by Edward Donnelly, replaced these businesses. The Royal Bank of Queensland replaced the restaurant in 1888, taking the shopfront that faced both George and Herschel (then spelt Herschell) Streets. The bank vault still extant in the basement of the building dates back to the Royal Bank of Queensland tenancy though it may have been included in original construction in 1885. 

The success of the Bank was affected by the onset of an economic depression in the early 1890s.  In mid-May 1893, there was a run on the various Queensland banks that forced eight of the eleven banks to suspend payments and close. The Royal Bank of Queensland closed all of its 21 branches for a period of 82 days. Recovery was slow but by 1898 a degree of economic stability had returned to the colony.  The Royal Bank of Queensland closed its George Street branch in 1910.

 

In 1917, the Royal Bank of Queensland merged with the Bank of North Queensland to form the Bank of Queensland. When the Bank of Queensland was taken over by the National Bank of Australasia in 1922, the National Bank of Australasia also acquired the former Royal Bank of Queensland headquarters in Queen Street. This was subsequently demolished to make way for a new National Bank headquarters that was constructed on the site (now 180 Queen Street) during 1929-30. The suburban branch buildings disappeared over the years and now the only remaining Brisbane building associated with the Royal Bank of Queensland is that located at 458-460 George Street. This building, the former Queensland National Bank (built 1885) and the ANZ Bank Building in Queen Street (1899-1900), are the only surviving nineteenth century bank buildings in the CBD. 

After the closure of the George Street branch of the Royal Bank of Queensland the premises was used for a variety of purposes. From 1911-18, it housed W. Johns & Co. drapers, then Harold Aldridge’s outfitters (1919), B. W. Allen’s outfitters (1920-21), J. R. Sim’s mercers (1922-32), and H. J. Beaumont’s mercers (1933-49). In July 1950, the property was sold to the Bank of Australasia and the site returned to its original usage as a bank. The building had been sub-divided into two retail premises that both fronted George Street. So the Bank of Australasia occupied the corner spot and leased the other section of the building to McKenzies Shoe Shop. In September 1960, the building was transferred to the Australia & New Zealand (ANZ) Bank and it became an ANZ Bank branch. It remained an ANZ branch until 1975 when the site was sold to Walcheren Pty Ltd. The other half of the building (458 George Street) also had many changes of tenancy. James McKenzie took over Astill’s bootshop in 1892. Mathew Connors & Co ran the bootshop from 1897 to 1902 when James McKenzie returned to the building. His family purchased 458 George Street in 1950 and their shoe store was still operating from the building in 1972.

  

As with most commercial premises within the CBD, the former Royal Bank of Queensland building has undergone a number of internal changes over the years to accommodate the requirements of its different tenants. This is particularly the case with the ground floors of CBD buildings. Brisbane City Council approved alterations to the building in 1950 when it became McKenzies Shoe Store and again in 1954. The building’s current fit-out as a Subway store occurred in 1996 and its other use as a 7-ELEVEN store began in 2000.

In 1986, the National Trust of Queensland published a heritage walk for the George Street retail precinct. In The Old Brisbane Markets Heritage Walk, the National Trust stated:

The combination of Victorian facades in George Street between Turbot and Herschell Streets combine to provide one of the most intact 19th century areas in Brisbane.2

In the ensuing twenty years, most of these nineteenth century buildings, such as the Druid’s Temple, Blenheim House, Stafford House, Jackson’s Buildings and Foresters’ House, have been demolished. The former Royal Bank of Queensland Building is one of only four nineteenth century buildings left in this section of George Street, and along with the Langley’s Building is the best example remaining within the streetscape described by the National Trust. Thus the former Royal Bank of Queensland Building is one of the few surviving remnants of the flourishing nineteenth century George Street shopping precinct.

The exterior of the building has been remodelled in the past. The verandah and supported awning were removed and only partially replaced with a suspended awning on the George Street façade.  The three original windows on the first floor facing George Street were also removed and replaced with four windows.  The rendered attenuated pilasters also appear to have been added to the building.  These changes were, however, complementary to the original style.

The building has also undergone a number of internal changes over the years to accommodate the requirements of its different tenants. However, the bank vault that still exists in the basement of 460 George Street dates back to the Royal Bank of Queensland tenancy beginning in 1888 or to the original construction in 1885.

1. Fitz-Gibbon, Bryan & Gizycki, Marianne, A History of Last-Resort Lending and Other Support for Troubled Financial Institutions in Australia, Reserve Bank of Australia Research Discussion Paper 2001-07, pp 31-33

2. National Trust of Queensland, The Old Brisbane Markets Heritage Walk, Brisbane, National Tust of Qld, 1986.

3. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, post-1946 building approval cards

4. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

5. Brisbane City Council, Archives photographic collection

6. Coghlan, T. A., Labour and Industry in Australia: from the first settlement in 1788 to the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901, vol. IV, Melbourne, MacMillan of Australia, 1969

7. The Courier Mail, 1959

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

9. Environmental Protection Agency, File no. 600141 – National Australia Bank

10. Environmental Protection Agency, File no. 600141 – Queensland National Bank

11. Fitz-Gibbon, Bryan & Gizycki, Marianne, A History of Last-Resort Lending and Other Support for Troubled Financial Institutions in Australia, Reserve Bank of Australia Research Discussion Paper 2001-07

12. Gibson-Wilde, Dorothy M., “Queensland’s Forgotten Federation Father – James Thomas Walker”, Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal, vol. 19, no. 11

13. Joyce, Roger B., Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 1984

14. R. Lawson Brisbane in the 1890s Brisbane:University of Queensland Press, 1987

15. John Oxley Library, photographic collection.

16. Mahlstedt & Son, City of Brisbane Detail Fire Survey, Map No. 3, 1951.

17. National Trust of Queensland, The Old Brisbane Markets Heritage Walk, Brisbane, National Tust of Qld, 1986.

18. Queensland Government, Queensland Centenary – The First Hundred Years 1859-1959, Queensland Centenary Souvenir, Brisbane, Penrod Publishers, 1959

19. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

20. Steer, G. R., Brisbane  - 50 to 60 Years Ago, A paper presented to the Rotary Club of Brisbane, 12 November 1951

21. Donald Watson and Judith McKay, Queensland Architects of the Nineteenth Century, South Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994

22. www.bggs.qld.edu.au/houses/index.php?option+com_content&task=blogcategory, Griffith House, accessed December 2006