24 Jolly Street, Clayfield

The article described the new house as “fashioned after the manner of homes in the rural province of Normandy in the north of France” and gave detailed descriptions of the interior and exterior features. Noted external details included the half-timbering of the wall of the “sleep out”, the use of porphyry stone around the entrance porch and the wrought-iron railings of the upper balcony. 

The house’s interior was thoughtfully designed with the sleeping sections (including a nursery) separate from the living areas, the garage located near the main entrance, and a study cum library on the ground floor. The ground floor also had a kitchen and maid’s room. Interior features included a face brick fireplace, oak handrails on the staircase and a lounge room with silky oak panelling and built in china cabinets. 

The Youngs chose architect Horace Driver to design their new residence. He had already designed a home in Cracknell Road, Annerley for William Young’s brother, Bob. The builder of the house was C.H. Schubert who later bought the block at 26 Jolly Street where he built a very similar house to the alleged annoyance of Horace Driver.

Driver was a Brisbane trained architect who worked in the office of Hall and Prentice Architects from 1922-25. In 1925 he left to work and study in America where he won four medals and the “Best Student” award at the American Beaux Arts Institute of Design in New York. 

Driver returned to Brisbane in 1930 and commenced practice as an architect, primarily designing houses and flats. Many of his designs had a Mediterranean flavour with stucco walls, tiled roofs, archways and Juliet balconies. He favoured the use of stone and brick, often using them to provide highlights to an elevation. Half timbering and gable roofs were also used frequently, lending an English feel to some of his designs. Like other Brisbane architects of the Interwar period including Bruce Lucas and Mervyn Rylance, Driver moved away from traditional Queensland architecture designs and helped to popularise new styles influenced by American and English styles. He worked primarily during the Interwar years for wealthy Brisbane clients, designing fashionable homes with middle class accoutrements such as maid’s rooms. 

The house at 24 Jolly Street is an example of the types of homes commissioned in Clayfield and the surrounding suburbs during the Interwar years by wealthy Brisbane clients who wanted the latest architectural designs with well appointed interiors. During this period, a wave of subdivision saw the large rural estates of the 19th century broken up for new fashionable suburban development changing the character of the area but maintaining it as a desirable residential address.

The Youngs sold their Jolly Street home in 1960 to the financial firm, Lombards of London who used the house as a company residence. It has since had several owners.

 

It features a plain, stuccoed chimney, a Juliet balcony and a half-timbered sleep out on the upper storey. 

The lower storey originally had a porch with open archways but this has since been enclosed and windows added. 

The house has been extended at the rear and a pool and front carport added.

1. Brisbane City Council aerial photographs, detail plans and building cards

2. Commonwealth Electoral Rolls, 1937, 1943

3. Gildea, Andrew. Horace George Driver Architect 1902-1982 Beaux-Arts to Our House. Bach of Arch thesis, Dept of Architecture, U of Qld, St. Lucia. 1988

4. Telegraph. 28 Dec 1937