Telecommunications House is a heritage-listed former clubhouse and now office building at 283 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane City,

City of Brisbane The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of the metropolitan area of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. Unlike LGAs in the other mainl ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. It is also known as Corbett Chambers. It was designed by

Claude William Chambers Claude William Chambers (1861–1947) was a prominent architect in Brisbane, Queensland and Sydney, New South Wales in Australia. Many of his works are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. Early life Claude William Chambers was born in ...

and built from 1906 to 1909 and was further extended . It was added to the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As a ...

on 5 April 2004.

History

This building was erected in 1906-07 as headquarters and clubrooms for the Commercial Travellers Association (CTA) of Queensland. The Commercial Travellers Association of Queensland was formed in 1884. It was the fourth such organisation started in Australia, the first being in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in the 1870s. Commercial travellers were an integral part of the retailing process in early Queensland. Most businesses employed them. They travelled all over the colony, showing samples of goods to retailers in isolated towns and conveying orders to the suppliers. They saw themselves as "advance agents", spreading "the blessings and decencies of civilization". Since its inception, the CTA had met in hotels, but between 1904 and 1906 the association acquired property in Elizabeth Street for a purpose-built headquarters and club rooms. The building was designed by prominent

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

architect Claude William Chambers, who had established in Brisbane a respected commercial practice which was extended to Sydney in 1915. His known commercial buildings from this period include the

Finney Isles & Co Building Finney Isles & Co Building is a heritage-listed department store at 196 Queen Street, Brisbane, Queen Street, Brisbane City, Queensland, Brisbane CBD, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Claude William Chambers and buil ...

('The Big Block') and Perry House in Brisbane's central business district, and the first

Winchcombe Carson Woolstores Winchcombe Carson Woolstores is a heritage-listed warehouse at 54 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by architect Claude William Chambers and built in 1910-11 by Stuart Brothers of Sydney who ex ...

at Teneriffe. Between 1901 and 1915 he was twice president of the

Queensland Institute of Architects The Queensland Institute of Architects was a professional society for architects in Queensland, Australia. It operated from 1888 until 1930, when it became a chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects. History The Queensland Institute of ...

, and was president of the

Australian Institute of Architects (United we advance architecture) , predecessor = , merged = , successor = , formation = , extinction = , status = Professional body; members association , headquarters = L1/41 Exhibition St, Melbourne , leader_title = CEO , leader_ ...

1916 to 1918. He resided mainly in Sydney from 1915, but remained in partnership in Brisbane with Lange Leopold Powell 1911-20 and Eric Marshall Ford 1920-35. The CTA Building was completed in mid-1907 and was opened officially by the

Chief Justice of Queensland The chief justice of Queensland is the senior judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the highest ranking judicial officer in the Australian state of Queensland. The chief justice is both the judicial head of the Supreme Court, as well as t ...

in August that year. It contained a "handsome dining hall" and bar on the ground floor, bedrooms for the accommodation of members, and a roof garden. A mansard roof and tower were removed at a later date, possibly when increased accommodation was being constructed . The CTA ranked amongst the most prominent of Brisbane's special interest associations, although membership was not confined to commercial travellers. With permanent headquarters, the club became a focal point for member interests and business. The association provided a variety of services to its members, including in 1914-15 the provision of a purpose-built Sample Rooms Building, now demolished, on an adjacent site fronting

Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ''s ...

, acquired in 1913. The CTA negotiated discounts for commercial travellers at hotels throughout the state, and was affiliated with the United Travellers Association of Australasia. As well, it provided services such as mortuary funds, accident and sickness insurance funds, assistance with loans, scholarships for members' children, savings funds, allowances for needy members, and an employment register for out of work commercial travellers. The Charlotte Street sample rooms did not prove to be as revenue-producing as anticipated. In consequence, in 1926, the CTA decided to erect as a leasing venture, a four-storeyed building on the Elizabeth Street section of the site they had acquired in 1913, which ran through to Charlotte Street between the CTA club rooms and the St Stephens School, Brisbane. The new building, formerly known as Hesketh House, and now demolished, replaced a winter garden, established by the CTA when the sample rooms fronting Charlotte Street were erected, and was connected with the 1906-07 building at each level. The dining room and associated facilities were moved to the basement of the new building, leaving room in the old one for additional bedrooms. Changing retail practice, prompted by improvements in transport and communications led to a decline in CTA membership after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1949 the CTA sold the 1914-15 sample rooms block and the 1927-28 building to the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, which used them to house the Engineering Branch of the

Post Master General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official respons ...

's Department. In 1963, the CTA also sold the 1906-07 building to the Commonwealth. It was renamed Telecommunications House and occupied as offices of the PMG's marketing and commercial section. The PMG ( Telecom after 1975) was located there until 1991. Plaue on Corbett Chambers, 2015

In 2009, the building was purchased and restored by the Corbett family. They renamed the building Corbett Chambers.

Description

Telecommunications House is located on Elizabeth Street adjacent to the grounds of the St Stephens complex. It is a four-storey building with a basement, constructed of red face brick with contrasting cream rendered features on its facade. The street facade is five arched bays wide, organised around a central bay emphasised by a ground floor entry

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

, a second floor

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

, and a parapet level Classical

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

. The ground floor portico consisting of a central triangular pediment flanked by scroll- like

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

is supported by paired Tuscan

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression membe ...

, and the balcony above is supported on paired unfluted Composite columns. Paired brick

pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall ...

, followed by paired, rendered Corinthian ones continue the vertical emphasis to the arch below parapet level. On each side of the central bay the openings are all arched with

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...

, and although they house windows at the ground floor level, form arcaded verandahs on the upper three levels. The arcaded upper levels have

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 ...

balustrades with the initials CTA located centrally, apart from the second floor central balcony which has balustrading similar to that on the parapet. The pediment at parapet level has an ornate central moulding of the CTA crest. Behind the facade the levels above the ground floor are recessed, previously providing a light well adjoining Hesketh House (now demolished). The northern face of the building is plainly rendered and has predominantly square openings apart from a couple of arched ones. Internally the building was linked with neighbouring Hesketh House when it was constructed, and these links remained at the front of the building on the ground floor and two of the upper levels until Hesketh House was demolished. Some sections of ornate plaster ceiling and a

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 ...

capital remain towards the rear of the ground floor. Timber beams and columns are still evident on the level below the top floor. The interior is currently divided into a number of private offices.

Heritage listing

The former Telecommunications House was listed on the

on 5 April 2004 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. Telecommunications House is important in demonstrating the development of retail trading practices in Queensland. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. It also demonstrates the principal characteristics of an early 1900s brick commercial building in Brisbane. The building is also important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of the commercial work of prominent Brisbane architect CW Chambers. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. Telecommunications House is important for its aesthetic characteristics including the deeply modelled facade of contrasting face brickwork and rendered classical details. The building makes a strong contribution to the streetscape, being complementary in scale and design to the GPO buildings opposite and the neighbouring St Stephens complex. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history. Telecommunications House is important for its special association with the operations of the Commercial Travellers Association, a significant commercial association in Queensland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and for its association with C W Chambers as a good example of his commercial work.

References

Attribution

External links