Cotswold

John Cyril Tritton was a member of the Tritton family, who were well known for their furniture manufacturing and retailing business. John Cyril Tritton was the son of F. Tritton who established the business in Logan Road, Woolloongabba in 1890. After the severe floods of 1893 affected Woolloongabba, F. Tritton moved the business to new premises at 260 George Street (since demolished). His son, John Cyril Tritton, entered the family furniture business and after returning from service in World War I, became Managing Director of the Coupon Furniture Company, an associated branch of the family company at the old Woolloongabba premises. Coupon Furniture Company closed in 1965.

The house appeared in a 1939 article in the Steering Wheel magazine that often featured fashionable homes of Brisbane’s leading families, usually designed by architects in the latest styles. The cost of constructing the house was £1, 490. During the Interwar period, Clayfield continued to be a sought after residential suburb where the upper middle class built substantial, often architect designed homes. The Old English style and other fashionable styles such as Mock Tudor and Spanish Mission became a particular feature of the Clayfield/Ascot area.

Roy Ashley Shaw was born in Rockhampton and served in World War I before working as an architect in Sydney and Wagga Wagga. After a period of overseas travel, he established himself as an architect in Brisbane in 1927. In 1938, he formed a partnership with H. J. Carlyle. 

The house has had some unsympathetic alterations at the rear in 1962 and a conservatory/kitchen added in 1992. It provides valuable evidence of the social history of Clayfield and the work of Roy Ashley Shaw.