The famous Overell department store was established in Brisbane in 1883 as a small drapery store in Fortitude Valley. Moving to Brisbane from Tasmania, William James Overell had opened the store with Thomas White in premises on the corner of Ann and Warner Streets which had been run as a drapery store since the mid-1860s. The partners bought a 15 perch (379.4m2) block of land fronting Brunswick Street in 1886, but did not occupy the site initially, instead leasing it to tenants. White left the business in 1889, transferring his share of the Brunswick Street site to Overell. Overell renamed the business ‘Overell’ and expanded to additional premises in Queen Street and other stores around southern Queensland. He adopted the motto ‘While we live we grow’ for the store, a statement that proved true over the following decades.

As Overell was branching out, other retailers were looking into the Valley for premises. Thomas Beirne and James McWhirter both started their drapery businesses in the centre of the Valley in the 1890s, with Foy and Gibson following, and the long-established drapers Stewart and Hemmant had a clothing factory constructed on McLachlan Street. The drapers’ stores and their competitive prices played a large role in making the Valley a vital commercial and industrial centre. By the turn of the twentieth century, helped by improvements to public transport and roads, the Valley had become a favourite shopping destination for Brisbane residents.

With the growing commercial importance of the Valley, Overell bought 28.83 perches of land (729.2m2) near the corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets from the Bank of New South Wales in 1899. The site had a connection with the Brunswick Street property that Overell already owned, though they did not share a street front, giving the block an odd shape. An ‘exceedingly handsome building’ was designed by Addison and Corrie for the site and the firm relocated there in July 1900. The new premises caught fire and burned to the ground in February 1904, causing the death of one man, knocking out power to the trams and destroying the Bank of New South Wales premises next door.

After a dispute with Addison and Corrie, Overell engaged architects Eaton and Bates to design a replacement building. At that time the architectural firm was new to Brisbane, having shifted their Rockhampton practice to Brisbane in 1902, but had promptly designed impressive buildings, including Saint Bridgid’s Convent, Red Hill (1903), Bunburra, Clayfield (1902) and Cremorne, Hamilton (1905). Eaton and Bates also designed Swift’s Building, almost diagonally opposite Overell’s on the Valley corner, as well as the rebuilt Bank of New South Wales building on the corner (no longer extant).

The new three-storey brick building was featured in Brisbane’s newspapers on its opening on the 1st of December 1904. ‘It is a different building which has arisen from the ashes,’ wrote the Telegraph, ‘not perhaps in contour, but there is more light and ventilation, larger departments, finer windows, and generally more convenience from a public point of view.' The fire was credited with the development of the company’s trademark, the Phoenix, with the company’s new building almost literally rising from the ashes. The building had three entrances, with shopping on the ground level, furniture and delivery departments in the basement, and a workshop on the upper floor, where Overell’s ‘Phoenix’ shirts were made. Eight large display windows provided views of Overell’s wares, and a phoenix was displayed on one of three coloured glass windows at the back of the building. Pressed metal ceilings, wide staircases, suites and lunchrooms for the workers and electric lighting were all installed.

Further growth followed the opening of the new building. WJ Overell and Sons was registered as a limited liability company in August 1905, with £30,000 in capital. Factories were established in Spring Hill and South Brisbane. In May 1906 architect Claude Chambers called for tenders for additions and alterations to Overell’s Brunswick Street property. In July, William Overell purchased a further 11.53 perches of land (291.63m2) from the Bank of New South Wales, fronting Wickham Street and with a lane (now called Overells Lane) at the side. Overell’s extension plans were detailed in the Brisbane Courier in August, which noted that the new premises would be fitted with pneumatic cash carrying tubes and fire sprinklers. Plans were approved for brick and iron additions to the Overell premises, this time on Wickham Street, in September, and construction was underway by October. With the Bank of New South Wales still occupying the Wickham and Brunswick Street corner, Overell was unable to dominate the Valley Corner, but the back of the Wickham Street building was connected to the Brunswick Street shops, creating an uninterrupted shopping arcade for customers.

No architect was listed in the register of new buildings in September 1906, though Claude Chambers’ advertisements for tenders suggest that he was engaged to design the building. Chambers’ solo practice was one of the largest in Brisbane, resulting in commercial designs including Finney and Isles’ ‘Big Block’ Building (1908 - 1910) and Perry House on the corner of Elizabeth and Albert Streets (1910 - 1913). He also appears to have known William Overell personally, as both were active members of the Booroodabin Bowling Club in the early 1900s.

In March 1907 Overell held a sale to celebrate the opening of the new Wickham Street building. A kiosk provided free tea and biscuits to shoppers. The expansion enabled Overell to divide the store into departments, with the Wickham Street side devoted to male clothing while the Brunswick Street building sold women’s apparel and accessories. By 1910, Overell’s comprised twenty departments in the Valley store, and the company had branches in Charleville, Laidley and Pittsworth.

Further renovations were undertaken on Overell’s buildings in 1911. An extra storey was added to the Wickham Street frontage, bringing it to the height of the Brunswick Street shops, while the Brunswick Street store was extended at the back. Galleries were constructed inside the building, to be used as offices and for toy displays. The designer of these additions was Walter Carey Voller, a Sydney-born architect who had trained with F.D.G. Stanley and practised in Brisbane since 1891. Voller was a fellow in the Queensland Institute of Architects and had served as its president and vice-president by the time he was commissioned for Overell’s building. Voller’s design was approved in late November, although the extensions were partially completed and opened in December 1911, just in time for Christmas.

William Overell died in 1917 and his properties were transferred to the company, Overells Limited. William Overell, the first of the famous Valley drapers-turned-department store owners, had played a significant role in the development of the Valley as a commercial hub. Along with Beirne and McWhirter, the appeal of Overells’ impressive store drew customers to the Valley, providing a market for smaller businesses and entertainment venues that sprang up in the Valley in the first half of the twentieth century. Overell’s contribution to the business development of Brisbane was acknowledged with the observation that his death caused ‘a blank in Brisbane business circles’.

Management of the company passed to Overell’s eldest sons, Arthur and William, who continued the firm along the same expansionary lines. By 1923, Overells’ was a forty-year old business and had ‘the honour of being the oldest established firm in Fortitude Valley’. The company marked the occasion with the purchase of another block of land on Brunswick Street, a 15.1 perch (381.92m2) allotment adjoining the Overell store. The company extended their building along Brunswick Street and updated windows for the Wickham Street frontage, in accordance with designs by architectural firm Atkinson and Conrad.

Three storeys were added to the Wickham Street building in 1926 - 1927. The company obtained a mortgage from the National Mutual Association in February 1926 and plans were approved in June. The Council also granted permission for the architects to add a chiming clock on the front of the Wickham Street premises, though if installed, is no longer extant. Atkinson and Conrad were again engaged to design the new storeys, which were built by Blair Cunningham. The additions cost £30,000 and were finished and opened in September 1927. The building featured rest-rooms for staff and customers and sick-rooms, and the additional storeys made it one of the tallest buildings in the Valley.

The success of Overell’s continued well into the 1930s and 1940s. From the original drapery goods, the company branched into selling wireless radios, furniture, household goods, footwear, fancy goods including jewellery, toys, confectionary, and self-service groceries. There was also a mail-order service, a radio club, an employee benefit society, a war bonds group, fashion parades, child care centre for shoppers, employee sports clubs, charity balls, a social theatre, and tea rooms. Entries in Overell’s dressmaking competition were displayed in the Wickham Street island window. The company even applied to run a movie theatre in the basement but permission to do so was refused.

Several alterations were undertaken on the Brunswick Street building front in the 1950s, converting it to a masonry facade. In 1953 Overell’s was replaced by Sydney department store Walton-Sears, one of four branches opened in November 1953 as the company expanded into Queensland. Title passed to Waltons in 1956, and the company made significant internal alterations in 1960, 1962, 1967, 1973, and 1975. The Valley’s popularity as a shopping destination declined from the 1960s onwards, and the department store closed in the 1980s. In 1984 ownership passed to Mount Cathay Pty Ltd, which in 2016 continues to own all of the former Overell buildings.

Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.

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The TC Beirne Complex was constructed for Thomas Charles Beirne in 1902 to the design of Robin Dods. The warehouse portion of the building was extended in 1906, and further extensions were made to the structure in 1910 and 1913, also to the design of Dods. By 1931, architects Hennessey & Hennessey had undertaken extensive additions, and in 1938 an extra 30,000 square feet of floor space was added. In 1956 the building was sold to David Jones, and has changed ownership several times since. Geoffrey Pie undertook alterations in 1974.

Thomas Charles Beirne was born in 1860 in Ballymacurly, Ireland, the son of farmers. He was apprenticed to a draper at the age of fourteen, and in 1884 emigrated to Melbourne where he worked as a draper's assistant and later joint manager for Eyre and Shephard and then Foy and Gibsons. Less than two years later a former employer in Ireland, Michael Piggott, invited Beirne to enter into a partnership and the firm of 'Piggott & Beirne' was established in Stanley Street, South Brisbane. By 1891 the partnership had dissolved and TC Beirne took his capital of £1200 and opened his own store in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, in premises owned by the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane. The shop employed six staff and had a frontage of twenty feet and a depth of fifty feet. TC Beirne had married Ann Kavanagh in 1887, and the Beirne family lived in quarters above the shop.

The success of TC Beirne's store was immediate, and within a few months of opening, the store underwent an expansion into a second and then a third adjoining shop. Beirne attempted to have the owner of the shops, the Anglican Diocese, pay to convert the shops into one store. When this request was rejected, TC Beirne purchased the Diocese holdings in Brunswick Street in 1897 for £8000 on a deposit of £50. The property consisted of five shops and a bank. Architect William Hodgen Jnr designed extensive alterations to the property, and by 1900 the business was described as having 'evolved into large bright looking premises with a frontage to Brunswick Street of 110ft'. The same article pronounced TC Beirne & Co. to be one of the 'most popular shopping places in the city of Brisbane'.

By this time, the Beirne family had moved from their quarters above the shop to 'Clevelard', Moray Street, New Farm. In 1899 the family moved again to 'Glengariff', Hendra where additions to the residence were made in 1907 to the design of Dods. Robin Dods was also the architect of a house built for Beirne's eldest daughter, Mrs Morgan, in 1912 (now located at 9 Morgan Street, Albion).

The growth and expansion of TC Beirne & Co. continued for the greater half of the twentieth century. Within a few years of the purchase of the Brunswick Street property, Beirne acquired adjoining properties in Duncan Street. The company was eventually to boast a Brunswick Street frontage of 146 feet, a Duncan Street frontage of 311 feet, and an Ann Street frontage of 62 feet. The shop floor areas fronted Brunswick Street, and warehousing areas were located along Duncan and Ann Streets.

In 1902 Robin Dods of the architectural firm 'Hall & Dods', was commissioned to design the building that was to form the core of the present structure. Additions to the company's warehousing facilities followed in 1906 when Hall & Dods called tenders for 'premises, Duncan Street, Valley, for TC Beirne & Co.'. Master Builder, GA Baumber, completed the work at a cost of £6348. Other major work was completed in 1910 and 1913, also to the design of Robin Dods. The tender of GA Baumber was accepted in 1909, while the work completed in 1913 included a 'new storey and other additions, besides the modernising of the Brunswick Street premises at a cost of about £25,000'. This work increased the number of arches on the parapet from two to three.

Less than twenty years later, in 1931, further extensions were made. Architects Hennessey & Hennessey were responsible for the additions. In 1938, 30,000 square feet of floor space was added by contractors GH Turner & Son at a cost of £30,000. The work was completed using structural steel, reinforced concrete and brick, and included the additions of a five-storey building to the Brunswick Street frontage of Beirne's property; and the addition of four storeys on the Duncan Street side of the building.

The success of the TC Beirne & Co. emporium extended outside Brisbane and branches of the store were established in the cities of Ipswich and Mackay, where buildings designed by Robin Dods were erected in 1902 (Ipswich) and 1907 (Mackay). TC Beirne also established a popular and successful mail-order service, extending the company's clientele base into more remote locations.

The early history of another Valley success story, McWhirter's, is directly linked to TC Beirne and Co. In 1894, James McWhirter joined TC Beirne as general manager and temporary partner before leaving to occupy premises on the opposite of Brunswick Street. Like Beirne, McWhirter was an instant success and the two stores, along with other principle retailers, Overells and later the ACB Company and Waltons, did much to ensure the popularity of Fortitude Valley as a shopping destination in the first half of the twentieth century.

While Thomas Charles Beirne became a household name through the success of his retail empire, he was also a prominent figure in wider Brisbane society. He joined the Brisbane Traders Association in 1898 and became its president in 1901. He was a director of the Brisbane Tramways Company, the Brisbane Gas Company, Queensland Trustees, AMP, Atlas Assistance and the British Australian Cotton Foundation. In 1905 he was elected to the Legislative Council where he remained until its abolition in 1922. He was University Warden from 1928 to 1941, and the T.C. Beirne School of Law was founded with his donation of £20,000. Other recipients of his generosity were the Mater Hospital, Duchesne College, St Brigid's Church, Red Hill, and the Holy Name Cathedral scheme. In 1929 he was awarded a Papal Knighthood of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, Civil Class.

TC Beirne died on the 21st of April 1949. Seven years later, in 1956, the Fortitude Valley TC Beirne building was sold to David Jones. The building was sold again in 1973 and in 1974 alterations were made to the design of Geoffrey Pie. The TC Beirne building for some time housed a branch of Target, another department store.

In the mid 1990s, the TC Beirne store and the TC Beirne warehouse in Duncan Street to the rear became separately owned. Both buildings have undergone extensive internal alteration and refurbishment and now contain commercial and retail outlets on the lower level and apartments on the upper floors. The TC Beirne Centre also contains offices of the Brisbane City Council. The former warehouse, now Fortuneland Centre, has been subdivided into 49 strata titles.

Today, the Chinatown Air Bridge that one linked the TC Beirne Building and the Chinatown car park has been removed as it was not a frequented thoroughfare and jumbled the Chinatown streetscape.

The TC Beirne Building was renovated to its original condition and repurposed as a retail precinct in 2016 to 2017.

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

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By 1920, the Valley had established itself as a prime commercial district in Brisbane. As well as the shopping precinct centred on the Valley Corner, it was also an auspicious industrial area, with good transport and proximity to working-class suburbs. However, expansion in the centre of the Valley was beginning to reach its limits. The streets, created when the Valley was a small, semi-rural town, were too narrow to cope with the huge influx of traffic, including trams. The newly-amalgamated Brisbane City Council began to carry out urgently-needed street widening projects, resuming extensive areas of land in prominent areas. Old companies, such as McWhirters, designed large new premises to replace smaller buildings. New companies trying to take advantage of the Valley’s popularity and industrial advantages moved in, erecting new buildings in the Valley, such as the New England Motor Company’s car assembly plant and General Motors Ltd’s service station. As a consequence, land values in Fortitude Valley skyrocketed. In 1923 a Brunswick Street property sold for a record £500 a foot, and in 1925 five shops in the centre of the Valley were sold for almost £40,000.

But as the Valley Corner and surrounding areas struggled with overcrowding, large amounts of land became available on the fringes of the Valley. Substantial family estates had dominated the area around Gregory Terrace in the 1800s, but from the early twentieth century, the estates were divided into smaller lots and sold. The Raff family’s ‘Grange Hill’ estate, consisting of the 4-acre block along Gregory Terrace, Warry Street, Brunswick Street and Water Street, was one of the last large estates to be auctioned in 1921.

The affordability and location of the undeveloped ‘Grange Estate’ encouraged new businesses and residents to move to the outer areas of the Valley. It had the advantage of enabling businesses to construct large premises, without being too far from the Valley Corner. It was also well-situated for the Exhibition Grounds, where manufacturers could display their finished products, and for residents the proximity to the Victoria Park golf course and other leisure areas was a draw. Residences, particularly for city workers, began to emerge along Brunswick Street and business premises were constructed along Water Street. In 1923, Henry Roberts was in the process of building large warehouse and shop facilities on Water Street, while a veterinary hospital on the corner of Brunswick and Water Streets was purchased by Daniel Carr and developed as a motor garage. In the same year, Alexander Bell and wife Mary established their furniture manufacturing business, ‘Bell Brothers’, with plans for a workshop, show room and office on Water Street approved between February and April 1923, and constructed by Alexander Bell himself. The site was on a corner of a major intersection, with high visibility along Brunswick Street. Alexander Bell’s purchase of sixteen perches on Water Street in the former Grange Hill estate was registered in December 1923.

Once completed, Bell Brothers’ new building formed part of a small ‘furniture precinct’ on Water Street, with Henry Robert’s ‘Brunswick Home Furnishers’ factory and showroom next door. The massive Rhoades and Co, which had a furniture showroom on Wickham street, also opened a store room on Water street. Other furniture manufacturing companies in the Valley provided more competition for Bell Brothers, including Crafti on Wickham Street, and Edmund Rosenstengel’s business in Brunswick Street. Bell Brothers also had to contend with major department stores T.C Beirne, Foy and Gibson, Whincup and Company, and Overell, all of which could offer customers high-quality goods at reduced prices.

Despite the competition, Bell Brothers quickly became a prominent business, renowned for its solid, hand-crafted furniture and award-winning displays in the annual Royal Show. Two new cabinet-makers were hired in 1924, and in 1926 the Bells purchased an additional 1.13 perches of land to expand their business. Architect Sidney W. Prior called for tenders for the erection of brick premises on the corner of Water and Brunswick streets for Messrs Bell Brothers in March and April 1927. The design was advertised to have included structural steel and cantilever awnings. Additions were undertaken towards the end of 1927, and a new furniture factory was constructed in early 1929, both designed by Prior. By September 1929, Bell Brothers had become successful enough to register as a limited proprietary company, with £25,000 capital.

Bell Brothers’ expansion was interrupted abruptly on Saturday 5 December 1931, when the premises was gutted by fire. The blaze caused a massive spectacle: thousands of people were reported to have stood outside in the dark and rainy night to watch the furniture factory burn, and photographs of the blaze were included in The Brisbane Courier on the following Monday. The fire had started in the Bell Brothers showroom and spread to adjacent buildings. Onlookers had attempted to move vehicles from Dan Carr’s motor garage when it also caught and was destroyed. The fire was fierce enough to leap across the laneway to the Brunswick Home Furnishers showroom, but reinforcements from the city’s fire brigades saved Roberts’ property from the worst of the fire.

Bell Brothers suffered an estimated £10,000 worth of damage in the fire. The two-storey brick showroom and its contents, except for a single brick wall, were destroyed, as were the polishing section and upholstery rooms in the factory. The company held a salvage sale from temporary premises on the opposite side of Water Street, and in 1932 the Bells began the process of rebuilding.

Although Bell Brothers had used Sidney Prior for its constructions in the late 1920s, E.P. Trewern was commissioned to reinstate the business premises. The Victorian trained Eric Percival Trewern established his Brisbane architectural practice in 1920 at an address in Queen Street, Brisbane. The practice continued until Trewern’s death in 1959. The height of his design success occurred in the interwar period and he is renowned for his innovative designs incorporating the Spanish Mission and the Old English/Tudor revival style in residential and commercial architecture. Amongst his finest residential designs is the New Farm house ‘Santa Barbara’ [601547], which is considered the best example of the Spanish Mission style in Brisbane. Trewern designed many commercial buildings in central Brisbane, most of which no longer exist. One important extant building is the Inchcolm Professional Chambers on Wickham Terrace [600170]. Trewern was also an active member of many prestigious architectural societies in the pursuit of improving professional architectural standards in Queensland.

Tenders were put out for the new Bell Brothers building in early 1932. Builders Tealby and Crick, with whom Trewern frequently worked in the late 1920s and early 1930s, had their tender accepted in April. The repairs were to cost £600. The new building was three storeys high, though it appeared to be only two from the outside. The new interior was constructed with New Guinea rosewood; and according to a former employee this was built by Mr Bell himself. The reconstruction was completed by June 1932, when another fire broke out in the factory, but this one caused only slight damage.

Bell Brothers’ troubles continued in late 1933 when Edward Rosenstengel brought legal action against the company, alleging infringement of a registered design. However, Alexander and Mary Bell successfully defended the action, and Bell Brothers was back on its feet by 1934, when the firm won first prize for its array of household furniture at the Royal Show.

The US Navy leased the modern Bell Bros Furniture showroom & factory Building through the Australian Army Hirings Service (at Victoria Barracks) on 17 June 1943. This is a three-storey brick building. Each floor has an area of 2,100 square feet. The ground floor that has a prime commercial at the prominent Brunswick and Water Streets corner has two large show (display) windows on the Water Street side. The windows could also be seen by the tram, motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic passing along Brunswick Street.

The USN conducted four activities from this building. The US 7th Fleet’s Photographic Developing Laboratory occupied the second floor of Bell Brothers until November 1944. On the ground floor, with its major display windows, was the USN War Bonds Issuing Office. War bonds were a government scheme where bonds were sold to the public or service personnel on the understanding that the money would be repaid with interest at the end of the war. War bonds were used to raise revenue to fund the war effort. The War Bonds Issuing Office occupied approximately 800 square feet of floor space. This USN organisation shared the ground floor with the Cap Boat Leave Office and USN Central Control Office of New Pay Procedures. It occupied the remainder of the ground floor, approximately 500 square feet.

In January 1945, in a review of its remaining Brisbane facilities, the USN recommended that the War Bonds Issuing Office, the Cap Boat Leave Office and the Central Control Office of New Pay Procedures be transferred to the Audio Visual Training Library Building at the USN Training Centre in Lammington Avenue, Newstead. The Bell Brothers Building would then be returned to Australian Army Hirings Service. The USN ended its lease in March 1945.

The business continued to be run by the Bell family for almost seventy years, supplying custom-made furniture to customers such as former Governor-General Bill Hayden. In 1988 Bell Brothers was purchased by Moreton Pacific and the company was wound up in 1990, although a branch of Bell Brothers continues to operate today in Newstead.

The modern building placed at the back of the site and behind the Bell Brothers office building has no heritage significance. During a fire in 1973, the original factory burnt down, leaving only the showroom still standing. However, the brick wall which stands adjacent to the building is significant, as the only remaining part of the original 1923 Bell Brothers building.

The former Bell Brothers’ allotment became the property of Imbarra Pty Ltd in 1994, and was divided into nine lots in December 2000. The Bell Brothers building was entered onto the City Plan Heritage Register in January 2004. Currently the building is used for commercial purposes. A large advertising sign has been erected on top of the building.

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