Royal Exchange Hotel - Toowong

Royal Exchange Hotel Toowong. Architect Richard Gailey
The railway reached Toowong in 1875, and by 1876 there was a Railway Hotel across the road from the station. The hotel changed its name in 1884, and became the Royal Exchange.
It is popular with local office workers and also University of Queensland students due to its proximity to the university.  It is on the heritage register.

Super morning with the Brisbane City Sketchers

A4 sketchbook - Unipin pen and watercolour

 

 

Gresham Lane

Gresham Lane is what is left of the magnificent  Gresham Hotel. The hotel  was designed by JH Buckeridge and built by Henry Holmes.  below is an early photo.

The Gresham can lay claim to a couple of bits of history. The documents that incorporated Qantas were signed there in 1920, when Hudson Fysh, Paul McGuinness and Fergus McMaster met to inaugurate the airline.

The Gresham was one of the earliest buildings in Brisbane to install electricity - it came from the power station that was erected in 1887 behind the GPO in what is now called Edison Lane  - and the hotel was able to include the necessary electrical fittings during construction.

The hotel was also a player in the infamous 1942 Battle of Brisbane, where Australian and American service personnel locked horns in the intersection right outside the Gresham. Undoubtedly some of the antagonists would have been drinking there, but also the hotel's verandahs were a vantage point for many, including war correspondent John Hinde who was on a balcony overlooking the melee. He stated "The most furious battle I ever saw during the war was that night in Brisbane. It was like a civil war."

 The Gresham was demolished after a the great flood in 1974. The national Australia Bank was built in it's place.  The lane-way remains as a  reminder of times past.

The new Gresham is in the NAB building.

 

Koala House in Adelaide Street

I am a Dedicated URBAN SKETCHER:-
I have been a member of Urban Sketchers for about 9 years now, and I am a Blog Correspondent for the Australia Urban Sketchers Blog. I love being an Urban Sketcher, and the comrade of fellow sketchers.  We are a big family, helping and supporting each other, and sharing our sketches with the world.

Today the Brisbane City Sketchers sketched in Adelaide Street in the City.  I sat in the Sparrow and Finch Cafe (love that name) and sketched the iconic Koala House. 

 

A4 sketchbook - Lamy pen and watercolour 

 

 Koala House used to be an Japanese restaurant.

Long gone, changed hands many times, and I think the

Koalas are now registered on the heritage Register.

Urban Sketches January 2017

Sketching in Fern Gully at Roma Street parkland

Sketching at  Brisbane City Gardens

Bishopsbourne Brisbane

Sketching with the Brisbane City Sketchers this morning.  What a lot of fun, there were 11 of us for the first sketchout of 2017

A4 sketchbook unipin pen and a splash of watercolour