Carrington

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. 

In 1933 Edgar MacArthur, a financier, purchased twenty-two perches of land along Gregory Terrace. The vacant land had recently been subdivided from a larger block that contained a large house, No. 441 (no longer extant). MacArthur commissioned prominent Brisbane architect, George Rae to design a set of six flats for the site.  

As one of Brisbane’s most successful architects in the interwar period, George Rae had first established his own architectural firm in 1933. Prior to this he had been employed at the larger Brisbane firm of Atkinson, Conrad and Powell. Rae was renowned for designing modern buildings in Brisbane in the interwar period such as multi-unit residential buildings that were a very new idea in this period. 

In March 1933, a Tender notice was placed in the A&B Journal of Queensland for the erection of the Gregory Terrace flats. The successful contractor was TC Clarke. In August that same year the Brisbane City Council approved the plans and this was recorded in the Register of New Buildings, “New Building…Gregory Terrace and Warry Street…Flats…E MacArthy, Queen Street…TC Clarke [contractor]…G Rae [architect]”. The set of six flats were to cost £3000. 

In June 1933 the modern design was featured in an article in the Brisbane Courier that stated: 

“The building, which is to be brick and concrete construction, will be three stories in height, and, designed in the Spanish style, will contain six flats. Each flat will contain living and dining rooms, two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and smoke lounge”.1 

Following this article, another in the Brisbane Courier from August of that year highlighted the important reinvigoration of the building industry as it struggled out of the Great Depression; it  stated, “Two new blocks of flats, each costing £3000, were passed. One is to be erected at Gregory Terrace, and will be a three-story brick structure, containing six flats. The architect is Mr G Rae and the builder is Mr TC Clarke” (The Brisbane Courier, 11 August 1933, p7). By 1935 the flats had been completed and were named ‘Carrington’, with two being leased to tenants at this time. One of the flats became Edgar MacArthur’s home until the 1950s.  

‘Carrington’ flats are 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. 

1. The Brisbane Courier, 11 August 1933, p7

2. Architectural and Building Journal of Queensland, March 1936 and editorial, 1938

3. Brisbane City Council Minutes, 1935-36, p.764 & 918 and 1938, p.605

4. Brisbane City Council, 1946 aerial photographs.

5. Brisbane City Council Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Detail Plans

6. Certificates of Title, Department of Environment and Resource Management

7. McKellar's Map of Brisbane and Suburbs. Brisbane: Surveyor-General’s Office, 1895

8. Queensland Post Office Directories

9. Queensland Electoral Rolls

10. Brisbane City Council, Register of New Buildings, August 1933

11. The Brisbane Courier, 9 June 1933, p4

12. A&B Journal of Queensland, 10 August 1933

13. Bennett, Helen, “Being Modern: Living in Flats in Interwar Brisbane”, Queensland Review, v.13, no.2, 2006, p35-48