Shell House, Brisbane

Shell House is a heritage-listed building at 301 Ann Street in the Brisbane central business district.[1][2] It was entered in the Register of the National Estate on 30 May 1995, when it was called the CPS Credit Society Centre.[3]

August 1933
Scaffolding surrounding Shell House under construction, c. 1932

History

Designed by Brisbane architects Hall & Phillips (1929–1948),[4] it opened in 1933 as an office building for the Shell company. It was part of a series of state offices built at that time by Shell: Shell House Adelaide in 1932, followed by Brisbane and Perth, Shell Corner in Melbourne in 1933, and at Wynyard Square in Sydney in 1938.[5]

To the left of Shell House, which features extensive Art Deco elements, is the neoclassical Masonic Temple (1930), on its right the neo-Romanesque St Andrew's Uniting Church (1905).[6] Before Shell House, the site was home to a stonemason.[7]

The building – consisting of seven storeys and a basement, serviced by three lifts and a mail chute – was opened by the Deputy Premier of Queensland and Lands Minister, Percy Pease, and Hugh M. Russell MLA, president of the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce.[8] The façade is from locally produced granite and Benedict stone (a mixture of cement and Brisbane tuff, supplied by the nearby Benedict Stone factory in Bowen Hills.[9] The Art Deco features of Shell House include stylised shell decoration on the exterior of the building, marble wall panelling and fluted pilasters in the foyer, an elegant staircase with wrought iron balustrade, an embellished plastered ceiling, and lifts with coloured glass doors with a chevron design.[10]

Ground floor stairs
Mail chute

In 1997, the building was converted to a hotel and apartment building, Rothbury on Ann, consisting of about 60 one- and two-bedroom suites, operated by the Ultiqa group.[11]

In 1989, Shell House was located for a while at 159 Coronation Drive, Milton.[12]

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References
  1. Local Heritage Register, Brisbane City Council, as at 31 March 2008
  2. "Shell House (former)", Brisbane Heritage Register
  3. "CPS Credit Society Centre, 301–311 Ann St, Brisbane City, QLD, Australia", Register of the National Estate
  4. Thomas Ramsay Hall (1879–1950), stepbrother of Francis Richard Hall ("Hall, Francis Richard" by Janet Hogan, in Australian Dictionary of Biography); Lionel Blyth[e]wood Phillips
  5. "Making Tracks" in ...from kero tins to LNG tankers..., p. 17, Melbourne 2001
  6. "Shell House", yourbrisbanepastandpresent.com
  7. "St Andrew's Uniting Church, corner Creek St & Ann St", yourbrisbanepastandpresent.com
  8. Shell Building, Brisbane, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 June 1933 (via National Library of Australia)
  9. "Newspaper House (entry 600150)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  10. Wilson, Kimberley, ed. (2015). Brisbane Art Deco: Stories of our Built Heritage. Brisbane, Australia: Jubilee Studio. ISBN 9780646936598.
  11. Rothbury Hotel
  12. Shell House – Coronation Drive – Milton

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