Addresses
Type of place
Flat building
Period
Interwar 1919-1939
Style
Composite
Addresses
Type of place
Flat building
Period
Interwar 1919-1939
Style
Composite
Dunvegan was built between 1935 and 1936 for the McLeod family as an investment property. Designed with features that follow both the ‘Spanish Mission’ and ‘Arts and Craft’ architectural styles popular at the time and situated at the peak of the hill along Gregory Terrace and overlooking Victoria Park, Dunvegan has strong aesthetic value in Spring Hill. The set of flats is important in demonstrating Brisbane’s development pattern in the interwar period, in particular in Spring Hill, and the way in which ideas about acceptable forms of housing were changing.
Lot plan
Key dates
Local Heritage Place Since —
Date of Citation —
Construction
Roof: Terracotta tile;Walls: Masonry - Stucco
Criterion for listing
(A) Historical; (E) AestheticInteractive mapping
Lot plan
Key dates
Local Heritage Place Since —
Date of Citation —
Construction
Roof: Terracotta tile;Walls: Masonry - Stucco
Criterion for listing
(A) Historical; (E) AestheticInteractive mapping
History
As the Great Depression progressed in the late 1920s and into the 1930s a marked deficit of housing in Brisbane emerged. This was the period in which the multi-unit dwelling began to emerge as an alternative to the traditional Brisbane house and yard. Prior to this in larger Australian cities such as Sydney and Melbourne this style of ‘modern’ living, in blocks of flats, had become a stylish alternative to living in the traditional house.
In the early 1930s to cater for the housing shortage as well as to generate income many home owners in the inner-city suburbs converted houses into tenements, where tenants would share bathrooms, toilets and kitchens. This led to community concerns of overcrowding and increased hygiene problems. A fashionable and more sophisticated alternative to this form of accommodation was the purpose built block of self-contained flats. Marketed mainly at single people and childless couples the earliest self-contained flats in Brisbane were generally conveniently situated close to trams, trains and shopping facilities in inner-city suburbs such as Spring Hill, New Farm and Fortitude Valley.
The Brisbane City Council, in 1930, defined the flat as “a fully self-contained dwelling, with private kitchen, bathroom and water closet”. The flat was designed to be an independently functioning dwelling. Although seen as a sophisticated lifestyle, flat living was fairly uncommon in Brisbane in this period, with only 8.4% of Brisbane residents living in flats. This low percentage may be due to the economic constraints of the time as well as the perceived novelty of this style of living. Most interwar flats in Brisbane were architecturally designed and constructed from good quality brick and timber.
Prior to the construction of Dunvegan, the McLeod family lived in a property on the corner of Gregory Terrace and Hill Street called ‘Loch Earn’. In 1917 Daniel McLeod purchased a twenty perch block of land beside Loch Earn on the corner of Gregory Terrace and Park Street and another seven perches behind it at the same time. From both the Post Office Directories and the 1924 Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board Maps, a house existed on the site before Dunvegan was constructed.
In 1925 the property was transferred to Daniel Walker McLeod and Elizabeth Stitt. From 1935 to 1938 the Post Office Directories record the site as ‘vacant’. This would imply that a new building was being constructed. The beautifully designed set of flats had been completed by July 1936; this is confirmed by an advertisement in the Courier Mail:
“Gregory Terrace, “Dunvegan” flats, just completed, new, brick. Unfurnished Flats, lounge and dining room, 2 bedrooms, modern kitchen, pipe tiled bathroom, laundry, garage, panelled and papered walls, refrigeration, hot water system” (The Courier Mail, 9 July 1936, p5).
Dunvegan flats make a striking contribution to the Gregory Terrace streetscape. The beautifully designed set of flats overlooking Victoria Park is aesthetically important in Spring Hill.
Description
Dunvegan is a two-storey with basement, rendered masonry apartment building fronting Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill with a side frontage to Park Street. It has a terracotta tiled multi-hipped roof with two projecting front gables. These have decorative parapets and double height hexagonal bay windows. The building retains original timber framed multi-paned casement windows, some with timber framed hoods. The side verandah has been enclosed with later glass louvres. The apartments are on the ground and first floors and the basement is garages. The building stands in a landscaped yard with a face brick boundary fence. The interiors retain original layouts, joinery and finishes. The interwar flats are highly intact.
Statement of significance
Relevant assessment criteria
This is a place of local heritage significance and meets one or more of the local heritage criteria under the Heritage planning scheme policy of the Brisbane City Plan 2014. It is significant because:
References
-
Brisbane City Council Minutes, 1935-36, p.764 & 918 and 1938, p.605
-
Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.
-
Brisbane City Council Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Detail Plans
-
Certificates of Title, Department of Environment and Resource Management
-
Surveyor-General’s Office. McKellar’s Official Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane, 1895
-
Queensland Post Office Directories
-
Queensland Electoral Rolls
-
The Courier Mail, 9 July 1936, p5
Citation prepared by — Brisbane City Council (page revised September 2020)