Corner Shop

This two-storey shop and dwelling was constructed circa 1899 for Michael Lyons, a bootmaker. The adjacent one-storey shop was built slightly later, possibly around 1908. Lyons occupied a section of the shops and leased the rest to a variety of business owners, including grocers, hairdressers, fruiterers and newsagents. The shops were situated on the edge of the popular Valley shopping precinct, in a mixed residential and business area marked by closely-settled subdivisions with narrow streets and occupied by working-class families. On Lyons’ death in 1928 the shops were sold to the tenants, William and Christina Hall, and continued to host the Halls’ grocery store and other small businesses. The two-storey shop-house provides an example of a late nineteenth century shop with dwelling above and both buildings reflect the commercial and suburban development of the northern end of Fortitude Valley in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.