Berry's Shop

Caxton Street is just 500 metres in length. It ran downhill to the Paddington Cemetery (1840-75) and the street developed into the commercial centre for this early suburb. In 1864, the first Caxton Hotel was built on the north side of the thoroughfare. It was followed in 1868, by the Terrace Hotel that was built at the northern corner of Caxton Street and Petrie Terrace, thereby book-ending the Caxton Street shopping precinct with the cemetery. The Brisbane Gaol (November 1860 – July 1883) that was replaced in 1885 by the Queensland Police Barracks plus the army’s Victoria Barracks (opened 1864) provided regular custom for the hotels and small shops that arose around it. Caxton Street had become a well-established shopping and residential precinct by the 1870s.

During the economic boom of the 1880s, more substantial commercial buildings replaced earlier timber shops or houses. The Oddfellows (now Baroona) Hall was constructed next door to the Terrace Hotel in 1883-84. It contained two shops in its Caxton Street frontage plus a meeting hall located at the rear for the United Brothers’ Lodge, Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows. A shop fire damaged the first Caxton Hotel so it was demolished and a second Caxton Hotel was completed in 1884 across the road on its current site. In 1887, the Terrace Hotel burnt down and the Lord Alfred Hotel was built atop the old hotel’s porphyry stone cellars and opened in 1888. On the opposite (southern) corner, a bootmaker’s shop was constructed in the 1890s. The opening of the Petrie Terrace (Countess Street) and Red Hill electric tram lines in 1897 attracted more customers to Caxton Street.

The site at 19 Caxton Street was originally part of a freehold purchase of land bought by Brisbane resident George Bowder on 6 September 1861. Bowder paid £5.11.3 for 1 acre, 2 roods and 13 perches of vacant land that was described as Brisbane Allotment No.293.  Bowder subsequently subdivided Allotment 293 into small house allotments. On 5 September 1864, James Robinson, of Brisbane, purchased Subdivision 6 of Allotment 293 that comprised 13.8 perches. James Robinson is listed as a stationer in Caxton Street in the 1876 Edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories. James was listed as operating on the north side of the street, close to the corner of Caxton Street and Petrie Terrace. This could be the site of Number 19 Caxton Street.

The 1876 Edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories lists 18 residents or shops on the same (north) side of Caxton Street as Number 19. This may indicate that a building had been constructed on Subdivision 6 of Allotment 293 by 1876. The 1878-1879 Edition lists two shops that may be on the location of Number 19 Caxton Street. This possibility is also reflected in the Caxton Street listings in the subsequent 1885-1886 Edition. The style of the building at 19 Caxton Street would indicate that it could date back to an earlier this period rather than 1897, the date stamped onto its pediment.  

On 23 September 1890, Charles George Berry became the new owner of No.19 Caxton Street. Berry was a bookseller who had been operating a Caxton Street bookshop, close to the corner of Petrie Terrace, since 1887.  Berry mortgaged No.19 Caxton Street for ₤380, through the Queensland National Bank Limited, on 24 October 1892. Berry is listed as continuously running his business from this site from 1887 through to 1921-22. This again indicates that the building existed prior to 1897.

Berry transferred the property to James Edward Pedler on 26 April 1893. Berry had reorganised his shop by 1894 so that it became a stationery shop, which was an appropriate business for the fashionable suburb of Petrie Terrace.   On 22 March 1897, Berry returned to gain joint ownership of the property, when he and Pedler were appointed as joint trustees. Financial difficulties due to the 1890s Economic Depression may have caused the appointment of trustees over the property. This situation mirrored the ownership of the neighbouring building, (25 Caxton Street) which Pedler had also bought on 26 April 1893. In similar circumstances, Pedler was appointed joint trustee of 25 Caxton Street together with that building’s ex-owner, John B. Syned, also on 22 March 1897. 
      
Berry’s Shop is first listed with the street address of No.19 Caxton Street in the 1901 Edition of the Queensland Post Office Directories. The listing showed that the building contained two shopfronts, at No.19 and No.21. The smaller shop at No.21 was occupied by bootmaker G. Brandon. Subsequent occupants of the smaller shopfront were grocer Mrs Albert Rowsell, bootmaker George Brandon, Richard G. Edmonds, James Ward, confectioner William G. Thomas, confectioner Mrs Arthur Ward and Refreshment Rooms managed by Miss A. Peach. In 1923, Berry was replaced in his stationer’s shop by E.J. Stewart, with No.25 utilised as a small grocers shop. The 1927 sewerage map shows two separate shopfronts in the building, with a tramline running down Caxton Street providing further custom to the shops.

On 11 November 1919, Berry was replaced as a property trustee by Frederick Arthur Robinson. The 1827 Sewerage Map shows that the building housed two separate shops marked as No.19 and No.21 Caxton Street. James E. Pedler died on 27 December 1928. Fred A. Robinson remained as a trustee but the Union Trustee Company of Australia Limited was appointed was appointed as Robinson’s co-trustee on 11 December 1929. In 1930, No.19 was Thomas Irving’s newsagency and stationer’s shop, while No.21 was Edward and McGilvery’s confectionery and grocers shop. In 1940, the building housed George Mander’s newsagency and McGilvery’s confectionery and grocers shop. In 1940, McGilvery’s confectionery and grocers shop was still at No.21, alongside the Haine & Co. newsagency at No.19 Caxton Street.

By the 1920s, Petrie Terrace was losing its prestige area status. Its location close to the expanding Brisbane Central Business District meant that it was ideal for the conversion of its old homes into inner-city flats. Post-war, the suburb had acquired a run-down image due to the predominance of older-style, rental accommodation. The deterioration in Petrie Terrace was reflected in the Caxton Street shopping precinct, which became shabby and unattractive, providing poor commercial returns. This was reflected in the constant turnover of ownership of the No.19 Caxton Street building from 1946 to 1973. A succession of five owners bought the property, with it changing hands in March 1946, April 1951, August 1952, November 1965 and March 1973. On 6 March 1974, Constantine Hadgelias took sole ownership of the former Berry’s Shop. Hadgelias had previously been the joint owner, along with Panayioti Hatyalia of the property. They had previously spent $4,000 renovating one shopfront for use as a small fruit shop and they had gained Brisbane City Council approval for this renovation on 18 October 1972. Then they had leased most of the building to the the State Government’s Totalisator Administration Board (TAB) for 10 years commencing from 1 November 1972.          

Starting in the late 1970s, the suburb of Petrie Terrace was ’rediscovered’ by Brisbane’s residents. As a result, houses and shops were restored, property values improved and it became a fashionable are once again. Restaurants and boutique shops revived the Caxton Street commercial precinct. In 1981, The Courier Mail, in writing on Petrie Terrace’s revival, specifically identified the building row that encompassed Berry’s Shop, the former Oddfellow’s Hall, the Lord Albert Hotel and the No.25 Caxton Street building as significant, as “this section of Caxton Street epitomises the changes in the Petrie Terrace area.”1  The Berry’s Shop building retained two tenancies and in the early 1980’s, the larger shopfront that was next to the former Oddfellows Hall (then the Caxton Street Legal Service) was occupied by the “Shan” shop. By 1989, No.19 Caxton Street had been converted into the trendy “RAGS” restaurant, though it only occupied one shopfront. The other shop was occupied by a less-trendy TAB betting agency.

The Brisbane History Group identified this building as being of heritage significance in its 1989 publication The Ups and Downs of Petrie Terrace Walk/Drive Heritage Trail and in its subsequent publication Petrie Terrace Conservation Area – A Walk and Drive Tour. The Brisbane History Group described the property at 19 Caxton Street as

“…a fine row of early shops….the downstairs windows and doorways of Rags Restaurant are authentic, and the pediment above the TAB building still bears the significant date of 1897.”1  

Berry’s Shop is a rare, rendered brick, two-storey nineteenth century shop building surviving in what was one of Brisbane’s earliest suburban shopping precincts.  

1. The Courier Mail, “Fashion banishes a battler’s area”, 22 October 1981

2. Brisbane History Group, The Ups and Downs of Petrie Terrace Walk/Drive Heritage Trail, (Brisbane: Brisbane History Group, 1989)

3. Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, website

4. Brisbane City Council, post-1946 Building Cards

5. Brisbane City Council, Sewerage Map No. , 2 February 1927

6. Brisbane City Council, 1946 & 2009 aerial photographs

7. Brisbane City Council’s Central Library, local history sheets

8. Brisbane City Council, Heritage Unit, photographic collection

9. Brisbane History Group, Petrie Terrace Conservation Area – A Walk and Drive Tour, (Brisbane: Brisbane History Group, c1989)

10. The Telegraph, “A walk on the high side”, 16 April 1989

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

12. Queensland Post Office Directories, 1868-1949

13. ‘Fashion banishes a battlers’ area”, The Courier Mail, 22 October 1981, p.19

14. Woolcock, Steve and Fisher, Rod, Petrie Terrace Brisbane 1885-1988 – ‘Its ups and downs’, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 1988)