The Old South Brisbane Town Hall is the heritage-listed town hall of the Borough of South Brisbane, later the City of South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located at 263 Vulture Street (on the south-west corner of the intersection of Graham Street), South Brisbane, adjacent to Cumbooquepa, the residence of William Stephens, the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland and mayor of Borough of South Brisbane.
History
In 1888 the Borough of South Brisbane was established, independent of the Brisbane Municipal Council.
In 1891, work commenced on the construction of the town hall. The building was officially opened on 1 July 1892. Although it was widely known as the "Town Hall", it was officially the South Brisbane Municipal Chambers. On 6 June 1892 the Brisbane Courier reported that:
"It has been customary to refer to this building as town hall, but it is not a town hall, and was never meant to be such, but merely offices for the accommodation of the municipal officials and the alderman, the expense of providing a town hall being quite unnecessary, looking at the several large unoccupied public halls in the borough and profiting by the lesson afforded by some suburban cities in the Southern colonies. The building is planned in a very simple manner...."
Consistent with that claim, there is no public hall within the building. Against it, the building was described as "one of the most ornate and elegant buildings in the city" and was constructed at a final cost of £11,000 and in a prominent position with a tall clock tower, typical of a town hall. It was commonly known as the South Brisbane Town Hall.
The building was used for its original intended purposes from 1892 until 1925, when the City of South Brisbane was amalgamated into the City of Greater Brisbane. The building was then used by the amalgamated council as a Council Works Depot.
During World War II the old Town Hall and the neighbouring Cumbooquepa (now occupied and enlarged by Somerville House school) were occupied by the American Armed Services. As both sets of building were perched high above the street (particularly so for Somerville House), the Americans decided to create a ramp between them to avoid the need to walk up and down to the street. They removed a leadlight window from the upper storey (above the staircase) of the Town Hall to provide an access point for the ramp; the leadlight could not be found after the Americans departed.
After the war, the Town Hall was converted into residential flats, which were occupied by the families of council engineers recruited from England.
In 1957, the building was extensively refurbished to be used as the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.
Major restoration work was undertaken again in 1977 in preparation for the 1979 takeover of the building by the South Brisbane College of Technical and Further Education (now Southbank Institute of Technology) as the centre for its Extension Programs (e.g., evening classes in photography and belly-dancing).
In 1984 a replica leadlight window was created to replace the one lost in World War II.
In 1984 the heritage value of the building was acknowledged in 1984 when it was listed by the National Trust of Australia, followed by listing in 1989 by the Australian Heritage Commission.
On 15 June 1999, neighbouring Somerville House purchased the building. The Chamber Room (the former council chambers) is used for school functions and the office areas used for various administrative functions (enrolments, accounts, and development). In 2011, the school decided to call the building "The Chambers" to reflect its origins.
Architecture
In early 1890, a competition for the design of the municipal chambers was announced, despite the site for the building not having been decided. The competition required that the cost of the building be less than £5,000. Twenty designers were submitted and the winner was from architects Messrs John Hall And Son of Queen Street, Brisbane. The design was attributed to John Smith Murdoch who was later to become Commonwealth Deputy-General of Works and Chief Architect of the Commonwealth.