Style

Two women photographed standing on the steps of the Queen Street GPO during a World War I peace procession in 1919.  
Source: SLQ, JOL, image no. 121824.

Colleen and Goldie Gray, at the Ascot races on Saturday 5 August 1933.
Source: SLQ, JOL, image no.  102691.

Style tells us a lot. It is emotive so it talks about what people feel and what they want others to feel. Architectural style changes rapidly and is used to project an image. There have been periods when people want to be prospective and periods when people want to be retrospective. 

During the interwar years in Brisbane, no one style dominated. In fact, there was a style explosion. So much so, in 1959 it was described by one Brisbane architect as a "confused" period, architecturally. From the view point of the late 1950s when style was narrow, dominated by International and Mid Century Modern, the interwar period must have seemed haphazard. However, I think that interwar styles are quite understandable if you define them into two categories: the styles of 'romance' and the styles of 'optimism'. 

Hotel Daniell, corner Adelaide and George Streets, c1928. Elaborate 1880s Victorian style.
Source: SLQ, JOL, image no. 105071.

Hotel Daniell after modernisation. The façade was sheared of all the Victorian ornament, arch headed windows were squared off, the post-supported footpath awning was replaced with one that was top-hung, and large show windows were inserted along the street fronts. The result was a clean, simple box.
Source: SLQ, JOL, image no. 1878.

The Wintergarden Theatre

 Wintergarden Theatre usherettes, 1926. Foxy.

Moving Pictures came quickly to Brisbane after they were invented in 1895.  Australians made the first full-length feature film and the national film industry was big  - although Hollywood soon took over and dominated.  At first, moving pictures were shown in very makeshift locations (sheds, tents, etc.) but soon theatres were showing films on screens in place of live acts.  When it was seen that the moving picture fad was here to stay the first dedicated Picture Palace was built - The Wintergarden.

Opening 1 August, 1924 with Where the North Begins, it was a lavish new arrival heralded in the local paper for months beforehand.  Over 10,000 individual lights of changing colours hidden behind the intricate fretwork ceiling created a fantasy space.  A Wurlitzer organ, the largest in Brisbane (at the time) was installed to accompany films and represented an orchestra of 100. The theatre was naturally ventilated through ingenious techniques.

Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Building - 289 Queen Street, Brisbane

This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful of the surviving interwar buildings in the city.  I say surviving because unfortunately I'm discovering that a large percentage of the buildings built in Brisbane during the 20s and 30s have been demolished.