Brunswick Home Furnishers showroom

The streets, created when the Valley was a small, semi-rural town, were too narrow to cope with the huge influx of traffic, including trams.  The newly-amalgamated Brisbane City Council began to carry out urgently-needed street widening projects, resuming extensive areas of land in prominent areas.  Old companies, such as McWhirters, designed large new premises to replace smaller buildings.  New companies trying to take advantage of the Valley’s popularity and industrial advantages moved in, erecting new buildings in the Valley, such as the New England Motor Company’s car assembly plant and General Motors Ltd’s service station.  As a consequence, land values in Fortitude Valley skyrocketed.  In 1923 a Brunswick Street property sold for a record £500 a foot, and in 1925 five shops in the centre of the Valley were sold for almost £40,000.

But as the Valley Corner and surrounding areas struggled with overcrowding, large amounts of land became available on the fringes of the Valley.  Substantial family estates had dominated the area around Gregory Terrace in the 1800s, but from the early twentieth century, the estates were divided into smaller lots and sold.  The Raff family’s ‘Grange Hill’ estate, consisting of the 4-acre block along Gregory Terrace, Warry Street, Brunswick Street and Water Street, was one of the last large estates to be auctioned in 1921.

The affordability and location of the undeveloped ‘Grange Estate’ encouraged new businesses and residents to move to the outer areas of the Valley.  It had the advantage of enabling businesses to construct large premises, without being too far from the Valley Corner.  It was also well-situated for the Exhibition Grounds, where manufacturers could display their finished products, and for residents the proximity to the Victoria Park golf course and other leisure areas was a draw.  Residences, particularly for city workers, began to emerge along Brunswick Street and business premises were constructed along Water Street. 

Taking advantage of this activity was Henry Roberts, a successful Brisbane builder and valuator. After purchasing several large portions of land along Water Street, the application to construct a new brick store was successful and in 1921 his new workshop and store was recorded in Water Street. 

The new building formed part of a small ‘furniture precinct’ on Water Street, with ‘Bell Brothers’ factory and showroom next door, the Wunderlich metal ceiling showrooms across the road.  The massive Rhoades and Co, which had a furniture showroom on Wickham Street, also opened a store room on Water Street.  Other furniture manufacturing companies in the Valley provided more competition for Henry Roberts, including Crafti on Wickham Street, and Edmund Rosenstengel’s business in Brunswick Street.

In 1924, Brunswick Home Furnishers were featured in an article in the Brisbane Courier. The article detailed the benefits of shopping for furniture at the showrooms:

An inspection of the firm’s showrooms reveals a unique method of presenting the various suites and pieces which go to complete the scheme for establishing home comforts. The spacious floor has been divided into several rooms, each containing attractive dining, drawing, or bedroom suites, as the case may be. Carpets, mats, and palmstands with palms, vases … give a very pleasing and homelike effect (Brisbane Courier, 9 December 1924, p9).

The early -mid 1920s were years of relative prosperity in Brisbane for many residents. The horrors of the First World War were in the past and the Great Depression was several years away. New styles of design emerged in fashion, architecture and art. A flurry of new house building was occurring throughout the city as more land was subdivided as the demand for residential development increased. With this housing boom, the furniture industry benefited as new home owners sought the most fashionable home furnishings.  

Brunswick Home Furnishers continued to expand throughout the 1920s with another workshop with front showrooms constructed in 1923 and a bulk store with another showroom built in 1928. In 1930 Roberts’ advertised in the Brisbane Courier and it was stated: “that he owns his own land, factory, and buildings, and by this fact and personal attention to his business has so reduced overhead expenses as to be able to offer excellent values in every department of home furnishing. These are displayed in the 100ft of dressed shop windows and in the spacious showroom” (Brisbane Courier, 16 December 1930, p.8). 

The business continued well into the 1950s and today is historically important as evidence of this important industry in the 1920s and the way in which Fortitude Valley became the premier furniture and home improvement precincts at this time.

1. Post Office Directories.

2. Certificates of Titles, Department of Natural Resources and Mines

3. Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle, The Character of Residential Areas, Brisbane, A Study for the Brisbane City Council, 1994

4. Brisbane History Group, Housing, Health, the River and the Arts, Papers No. 3, 1985

5. Brisbane City Council Sewerage Maps

6. Brisbane Courier, 9 December 1924, p9

7. Brisbane Courier, 16 December 1930, p.8

8. Brisbane Courier, 20 December 1924, p23

9. Brisbane City Council Building Applications – 1920, 1923, 1928 and 1929

10. Original Surveyor’s Drawings, 1924