Shell House is a heritage-listed building at 301 Ann Street in the

Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the ...

. It was entered in the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

on 30 May 1995, when it was called the CPS Credit Society Centre.

History

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

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. To the left of Shell House, which features extensive

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

elements, is the neoclassical

Masonic Temple A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history In ...

(1930), on its right the

neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

St Andrew's Uniting Church (1905). Before Shell House, the site was home to a stonemason. The building – consisting of seven storeys and a basement, serviced by three lifts and a

mail chute A mail chute is a device by which mail is collected for pick-up by a post office from within high-rise buildings, such as offices and hotels. Deposit boxes on upper floors are connected via a chute to a central depository at ground level, from ...

– was opened by the

Deputy Premier of Queensland The deputy premier of Queensland is a role in the Government of Queensland assigned to a responsible Minister in the Australian state of Queensland. It has second ranking behind the premier of Queensland in Cabinet, and its holder serves as ac ...

and Lands Minister,

Percy Pease Percy Pease (29 July 1876 – 17 September 1940) was a businessman and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. Biography Pease was born in Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland, England, to parents Cuthbert Pease, an army sergeant, and his wife ...

, and Hugh M. Russell MLA, president of the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce. The façade is from locally produced granite and

Benedict stone Brisbane tuff is a type of rock, formed as a result of a volcanic eruption. As the name suggests, it is a type of tuff found in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a form of welded ignimbrite. Brisbane tuff comes in a variety of colours: pin ...

(a mixture of cement and

Brisbane tuff Brisbane tuff is a type of rock, formed as a result of a volcanic eruption. As the name suggests, it is a type of tuff found in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a form of welded ignimbrite. Brisbane tuff comes in a variety of colours: pin ...

, supplied by the nearby Benedict Stone factory in

Bowen Hills Bowen Hills is an inner north-eastern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the Bowen Hills had a population of 3,226 people. Geography Bowen Hills is by road from the Brisbane CBD. Mayne is a neighbourhood within the sou ...

. The

features of Shell House include stylised shell decoration on the exterior of the building, marble wall panelling and fluted

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s in the foyer, an elegant staircase with

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

, an embellished plastered ceiling, and lifts with coloured glass doors with a

chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * ''Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock lay ...

design. 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. In 1989, Shell House was located for a while at 159

Coronation Drive Coronation Drive, popularly known as Coro Drive, is a road in Brisbane, Queensland which connects the Central Business District to the suburb of Toowong. It follows the Brisbane River from the Riverside Expressway, through the suburbs of Milton ...

, Milton.Shell House – Coronation Drive – Milton
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References

External links

* {{Coord, -27.465205, 153.027796, display=title, dim:2km Ann Street, Brisbane Art Deco architecture in Queensland Brisbane Local Heritage Register Heritage of Brisbane Commercial buildings completed in 1933 Hotels in Brisbane Apartment buildings in Brisbane