ARCADES PROJECT

Brisbane Arcade is a 1920s masterpiece with shops on two levels, beautiful lead light windows over every unit and high up just below the Art Deco designed ceiling.

There are six chandeliers lighting up the arcade, marble staircases up to the upper balcony and two walk ways across the middle of the Arcade giving great perspective over the length of this Arcade gem.

When the Arcade first opened in 1924 (celebrating its centenary soon, though signage round the place suggests it started in 1923), this arcade’s main focus was to draw in the local ladies who wanted to promenade and be seen in their finery (see Past below).

Today there is more of a mix of shops in the Arcade, but a few keep the tradition of ladies’ style and fashion going. Irma Smith is one of those today, designing her own outfits for sale even today; or the Belle Folie milliners.

But there is also a fabulous tea room (which reminded me of Westminster Arcade in Harrogate for its views), lots of jewellery, beauty, and several artisan designers, engravers, artists etc. which seem to have come together under a local ‘Emerging Art & Fashion’ initiative. There is even a token ‘blokes’’ shop in Bolt and Buckle. And down in the basement is an Emporium with giftware as well as High Tea.

This is a wonderful vintage spot in the middle of Brisbane’s CBD. A great example of making an arcade a success.

My favourite shop today

Irma Smith designer of ladies’ fashion. This lady has been in the arcade for decades and still sits in her small but elegant unit on the ground floor of the arcade. She makes all the clothes herself and is determined to source fabric from the best producers, whether Milan or London. An icon of the arcade.

My pick of the arcade’s past

When the Brisbane Arcade first opened, women were the main targets for shopping:  Miss Clegg ladies’ boutique sold the latest ‘racing, morning, afternoon and dansant frocks’ (No 15); Moore & Byrne’s silk store; Essie Davies at The Jenny Salon catered for ‘ladies who find it difficult to find suitable frockings;’ Nance Curran would make costumes for you out of her premises in the arcade, ‘own material’; Dulce Décor moved to the Arcade shortly after it opened, taking No 18 to sell ‘furs, wraps and coats from the world’s fashion centres.’

Tragedy hit a florist in the Brisbane Arcade in 1934. Ada Mosses ran the shop with the help of her husband. When she told him they were short of frangipani blooms to make up some wedding bouquets for the next morning, he went off to find some. But the branch of the tree he climbed in a nearby park collapsed under him as he tried to pick the flowers, and he broke his spine in the fall, dying a short time later in hospital. His wife said at the inquest that it was not the first time he had fallen from trees when trying to collect flowers for the shop.

A gruesome murder in the Arcade dominated the news, and shocked the city in 1947. A 19 year old secretary was found strangled to death upstairs in the Arcade one morning; her accountant boss was convicted of her murder, but he committed suicide in prison just days after his sentencing to life. The story had so many twists and turns to it that a former police detective wrote a book about it, and relatives of the convicted murderer have more recently campaigned to overturn his sentence, 75 years on.

This arcade in films or books

Death Before Dishonour: The Crime that Broke Brisbane by former detective Alicia Bennett – non-fiction book on the background and follow-up to the gruesome murder in the arcade in 1947.

What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?

What memories do you have of visits in years gone by?

Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?

Have you seen Brisbane Arcade in any other films or books?

Does the arcade have its own website?

Yes, Brisbane Arcade certainly does have its own website, and it is updated regularly. Click the link in the name to view it.