Metro Arts Theatre is a heritage-listed building, originally a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...

and then a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

complex, at 109–117 Edward Street, Brisbane City,

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It was built in 1890. It has also been known as Community Arts Centre, Coronation House, and Metro Arts Centre. Theatres within the building have included the Edward Street Theatre, also known as New Edward Street Theatre (as part of the Community Arts Centre in the 1980s), while the Sue Benner Theatre, the Basement and the Studio came later. Metro Arts moved out of the building in late 2020. The building 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 ...

on 21 October 1992.

History

The site was purchased in 1871 by Captain

George Poynter Heath George Poynter Heath (19 June 1830 – 26 March 1921) was a Royal Navy captain and the first portmaster of Queensland, Australia. It was under his supervision and administration that the of coast of Queensland, and its numerous river and cree ...

, who erected a

in 1890 and leased it to George Myers & Co, who imported

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

, glass and

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed Vitrification#Ceramics, nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids ...

products. In March 1902 the upper levels were substantially damaged by fire but were later repaired. The warehouse was subdivided in 1907 to accommodate other tenants. In 1912, Myers & Co purchased the building and became the sole occupants. The firm remained in the building until 1930 when it was forced into liquidation. Between 1931 and 1937 the building was vacant. In 1938 the building was renamed Coronation House in celebration of the

coronation of George VI The coronation of George VI and his wife, Elizabeth, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Emperor and Empress of India took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Wednesday 12 May 1937. George ...

. It was occupied by various tenants including manufacturing agents and importers. During the latter part of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, sections of the building were occupied by the Australian Government Department of Supply and Shipping. In March 1949 the property was acquired by the Australian Government and was used by various Australian government departments. By the early 1970s the building was regarded as unsuitable for government offices and by 1976 all government departments had moved elsewhere. In that year, work began on converting the building into a community arts centre. In July 1981 the Community Arts Centre was officially opened, and contained theatre, two art galleries, rehearsal rooms, workshop spaces, meeting rooms, dark room, printing shop, cinema and restaurant. Further work was undertaken in 1988 to provide additional facilities for artists. From 1980 to 1989, the Edward Street Theatre, also known as the New Edward Street Theatre, was part of the Community Arts Centre, and was the venue for a number of notable performances, such as Bob Merritt's ''

The Cake Man ''The Cake Man'' is a 1975 play by Aboriginal Australian writer Bob Merritt, notable for being the first play written by an Indigenous Australian person to be published, televised and to tour out of Australia. A telemovie was made of a 1977 p ...

'' and

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

's ''

Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Of ...

''. The building was renamed the Metro Arts Centre in 1988.

21st century

In 2017, Metro Arts contained several venues: the Gallery, the Sue Benner Theatre, the Basement and the Studio, as well as multi-purpose spaces for creative businesses, individual artist studios and retail outlets. The inaugural classes of the

Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts The Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) is a national Australian institution for the culturally sensitive training of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people in the performing arts. Founded in 1997, it has been loca ...

were held in the building in January 1998. In November 2018 it was announced that Metro Arts would be selling the building, and it was sold in December 2019. Metro Arts moved to within West Village at 111 Boundary Street, West End, which officially opened in September 2020. Metro Arts commissioned and published a book on the history of the organisation and its buildings, ''Art Starts Here: 40 Years of Metro Arts'', published in 2020.

Description

This is a five-storey brick building with a basement level. The internal structure consists of timber floors and

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 member ...

. The street facade is divided into five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

by plain broad

pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

. The central and outside bays contain tall, narrow paired windows, while the wider intermediate bays contain three wider windows. All window openings are square-headed. The facade features austere classical detailing with

string courses A course is a layer of the same unit running horizontally in a wall. It can also be defined as a continuous row of any masonry unit such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, tiles, etc. Coursed masonry construction arranges un ...

dividing the floor levels. The ground floor level features, on the western side, a cart entrance and internal laneway which leads to a rear

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

. The simple

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

has stepped sections above the central and outside bays. The sides of the building have no ornamentation but have a regular pattern of window openings. The rear of the building has an internal hoist and motor under a curved

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

roof with hinged landings at each level. The building is substantially intact, particularly the upper floors, with visible evidence of the timber columns and beams, timber flooring, brick walls and service hoist. Considerable settlement of the upper floors is evident. Alterations to the building include the removal of some floor structure and the insertion of partitioning to accommodate a

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

and

cafeteria A cafeteria, called canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether in a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a scho ...

Heritage listing

109 Edward Street was listed on the

on 21 October 1992, having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. The Metro Arts Centre is significant for the evidence it provides, along with other surviving nineteenth and early twentieth century warehouses, of the scale of the former warehousing area in that part of the city. The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage. The Metro Arts Centre is significant as a good and rare example of a late Victorian warehouse. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The Metro Arts Centre is significant as a good and rare example of a late Victorian warehouse. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The building is also significant for its visual contribution to the character and continuity of the Edward Street streetscape.

References

Attribution

External links

{{Brisbane landmarks Theatres in Brisbane Queensland Heritage Register History of Brisbane Edward Street, Brisbane Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register Warehouses in Queensland