Addresses
Type of place
Shop/s, Shophouse
Period
Victorian 1860-1890
Style
Georgian
This is an image of the local heritage place known as Udale's Shop/Residence
Udale's Shophouse
Addresses
Type of place
Shop/s, Shophouse
Period
Victorian 1860-1890
Style
Georgian
This two-storey shop and dwelling was built circa 1877, probably by owner William Udale, a carpenter. Situated in populous Petrie Terrace and fronting a busy intersection, the shop was occupied by a pawnbrokers’ and dealers’ business from the 1880s until the mid-1910s, while the proprietors lived on the floor above. This is a rare surviving two-storey nineteenth century shop and dwelling, located in what was one of Brisbane’s earliest suburbs.
Lot plan
L1_RP10646
Key dates
Local Heritage Place Since —
Date of Citation —
Construction
Roof: Corrugated ironCriterion for listing
Interactive mapping
Lot plan
L1_RP10646
Key dates
Local Heritage Place Since —
Date of Citation —
Construction
Roof: Corrugated ironCriterion for listing
Interactive mapping
History
Petrie Terrace, one of Brisbane’s earliest settled suburbs, began attracting residents from the 1840s. The first land sales began in 1842 after the closure of the Moreton Bay Penal Colony. The suburb had been on the edge of Brisbane Town during the 1840s, hosting only the cemetery. However, its proximity to the central business district and a population boom in Brisbane combined to make the area much more desirable from the 1860s onwards. Houses, shops and a school were quickly built on small, tightly-packed allotments. The best residences were constructed along the Petrie Terrace ridgeline overlooking the town. Workers’ dwellings filled the hollows. With the opening of the Petrie Terrace jail and military barracks in the 1860s, hotels, stores and boarding houses quickly followed to accommodate the influx of workers and residents.
In 1874 allotments in Petrie Terrace were resumed for the construction of the railway line through the area to Ipswich. With the new line completed, remnants of the resumed land were offered for sale. In 1876 Udale purchased for £35 one of these allotments fronting Milton Road, the main thoroughfare, with side access from Clifton Street. It was just under nine perches (227m2) and this small size was not unusual for Petrie Terrace, although subsequent legislation prevented the creation of allotments as small as this.
The site was prominently positioned near the intersection of Petrie Terrace, (Upper) Roma Street and Milton Road, with the ground sloping away from the Milton Road frontage. Udale constructed a two-storey shop and house on the Milton Road boundary, leaving the remaining land vacant. The building’s ground floor was level with the Milton Road footpath and was used for commercial purposes. The first floor was Udale’s own residence. The house also included a brick basement level which was likely used for a kitchen. Surprisingly, this level was not mentioned in rental or sales advertisements for the property, though it provided the building with additional features, including a fireplace. This configuration of small scale retail connected to a house (usually the proprietor’s) above or behind is a type of suburban development in Brisbane which occurred during the mid to late nineteenth century.
Udale is first listed as residing in his shop and house in the 1878 Queensland Post Office Directory, suggesting that he finished construction of the building around 1877. In addition to residing in the property, Udale rented rooms to tenants. His wife Ann began advertising the ‘furnished bedroom, with Balcony and Bath; healthy and quiet’ in May 1878. Whether the house was also used immediately as a small goods or grocery shop is unclear. That Udale’s occupation was listed as carpenter may indicate that he ran a carpentry shop, however, this is not documented and Udale did not advertise his wares.
The Udales remained at the property for five years. In 1883 Udale offered the ‘two storey wood house and shop, suitable for Grocery’ for sale and in 1885 Henry Gear, a general dealer, purchased it. Gear already had a store on Adelaide Street in the CBD but leased the shop and house to his son-in-law, Joseph Cassells. Mary Ann Cassells inherited the property when Gear died in 1888. The Cassells ran a pawnbroking business from the premises. They auctioned unredeemed pledges yearly, offering hints of what was stored in the shop, which included jewellery, manchester, furniture, guns, clothing and pianos. Despite the small size of the site, the Cassells managed to accommodate and sell a horse in 1894 and offered a ‘cheap, strong sulky’ for sale in 1903. A stables building was included in the site, though it was no longer extant by 1923, when the site was surveyed.
Between 1889 and 1891 the Cassells mortgaged the property for a total of £350. The second loan coincided with an economic depression and in 1894 the shop and house was offered for sale. New owner Thomas Pibworth leased the property back to the Cassells and other tenants. One of the tenants, Mrs Buchanan, leased rooms in the house as Mrs Udale had done. The closure of the nearby jail and introduction of a tram line along the ridge helped make it a desirable residential area. Initially the property attracted working class tenants who could walk to the city for work, or advertise their work from the property. However, Mrs Buchanan subsequently suggested that the room would ‘suit [a] business person’.
The shop and house was again offered for sale in 1907 but despite the popularity of the area it was slow to sell. Sales notices for the property emphasised the ‘steady rental’ from tenants and ‘good order’ of the building, described as a brick shop and dwelling. The property was sold in 1912 to another investor, Lawrence Phelan, and continued to be rented to tenants.
As the twentieth century progressed the appeal of Petrie Terrace diminished. It developed a reputation as a run-down, inner-city suburb. The building was rented through the 1920s, though only as a house. It was sold again in 1930 then transferred to the first of a series of owner-occupiers in 1932. Albert and Olive White ran a newsagency and general store from the property, as did next owner Demetrios Navromatis. Between 1925 and 1946 a small one-storey extension was added to the building on the eastern side fronting the Milton Road footpath, probably as a second shop.
In 2016 Udale’s shop and house remains largely in its original form, illustrating the early commercial and residential development of the area.
Description
Udale’s shop and house (c1877) is a two-storey timber-framed and -clad building above a partial brick basement standing on a 220m2 allotment in Petrie Terrace. The building stands at the street front facing Milton Road, a busy thoroughfare, with a side boundary fronting Clifton Street. The building is clad with wide chamferboards and the hipped roof is clad with corrugated metal sheets. Large, multi-paned timber-framed show windows face the streetfront on the ground floor and a timber entry door provides access into the shop. A narrow first floor balcony with a concave roof projects over the footpath. The understorey includes a fireplace
A small, one-storey with basement level extension (built between 1925 and 1946) stands on the streetfront on the eastern side of the building and has a hipped roof and large show window.
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 aerial photographs, 1946, 2012
-
Brisbane City Council City Architecture and Heritage Team, citations
-
Brisbane City Council Water Supply & Sewerage Detail Plans
-
Brisbane City Council, Properties on the Web, Building Cards
-
Brisbane History Group, The Ups and Downs of Petrie-Terrace Walk/Drive Heritage Tour, (Brisbane: Brisbane History Group, 1989)
-
Department of Natural Resources. Queensland Certificates of Title
-
Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Petrie Terrace Police Depot (former) [601894]
-
McKellar’s Map, 1895
-
National Library of Australia’s Trove website, The Brisbane Courier, The Telegraph, The Queenslander, The Courier Mail, The Sunday Mail
-
Queensland Places: Petrie Terrace (website)
-
Queensland Post Office Directories
-
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Picture Queensland
-
Woolcock, Steve, & Fisher, Rod, Petrie Terrace Brisbane 1888-1988, (Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 1988)
Citation prepared by — Brisbane City Council (page revised September 2020)