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Alexandra Building is a heritage-listed commercial building at 451-455 Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Toowoomba architect Henry James (Harry) Marks. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 16 October 2008. == History == The Alexandra Building, a two-storeyed masonry building in Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, was constructed in 1902 to a design by prominent Toowoomba architect Henry James (Harry) Marks (1871-1939) for local businessman Thomas Kelsall Lamb. Marks also designed a 1905 extension at the rear of the building. The building originally comprised a banquet/concert hall on the upper floor and two retail spaces on the lower floor.〔 By the end of the nineteenth century, Toowoomba had established its position as the administrative and commercial centre of the Darling Downs, one of the first regions to be settled in Queensland. Squatters entered the rich pastoral region even before Moreton Bay was opened for free settlement in 1842 and by the mid-1860s Toowoomba had eclipsed its main rival, Warwick, as the largest town on the Downs. Located on the main route to Brisbane, it was a conduit for produce being hauled to the coast and the main source of supplies for the western pastoralists. By 1891, Toowoomba contained nearly twenty per cent of the population of the Downs.〔 As Toowoomba developed, a commercial centre emerged in the blocks bounded by Russell, Ruthven and Margaret Streets. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Ruthven Street was redeveloped with substantial masonry buildings and its pre-eminence as the centre of the city was confirmed with the construction of the third Town Hall in Ruthven Street in 1900. The Alexandra Building, erected in Ruthven Street between Russell and Margaret Streets in 1902, contributed to the consolidation of this street as the city centre.〔 The Alexandra Building was constructed for TK Lamb and Co., a well-established Toowoomba firm of confectioners and pastry cooks. Lamb had operated from at least two previous premises in Ruthven Street as a confectioner, baker and caterer with associated refreshment rooms, since 1885. Lamb also had a separate bake-house in Bell Street and a second confectionery shop in another part of Toowoomba. Like many merchants in Toowoomba, TK Lamb and Co. supplied not only the town of Toowoomba but the Downs and many other parts of western Queensland through a very successful mail-order business selling hams, small goods, dressed poultry and Christmas cakes. In the 1890s and early 1900s he also conducted a drapery business - TK Lamb & Co. (The Busy Drapers) - in addition to his catering, confectionary and baking concerns.〔 In 1901 TK Lamb acquired title to the Ruthven Street site of the future Alexandra Building and engaged HJ (Harry) Marks to design a building incorporating street-level shops and a hire-hall for balls, banquets and other large public functions such as public meetings, wedding receptions, parties and concerts. In addition he planned to build a new, modern cake factory and bakery at the rear of the building.〔 Harry Marks was one of a family firm of architects which had a lasting effect on the appearance of Toowoomba, being responsible for a large number of the city's public, private and commercial buildings. Born and trained in Toowoomba, he entered into partnership with his father James, in 1892. James Marks arrived in Queensland in 1866 and first set up in practice in Dalby, moving to Toowoomba in 1874. As James Marks and Son, Harry and his father dominated the architectural profession for more than half a century. Though Harry spent his entire career in Toowoomba and was responsible for designing many buildings on the Darling Downs including Rodway and St Luke's Church Hall, he also designed St James Parish Hall at Coorparoo and another Roman Catholic Church at Bulimba in Brisbane. His brother Reginald joined the practice in 1910. Harry was made an associate of the Queensland Institute of Architects in 1925 and a Fellow in 1929. His son, Charles Beresford Marks, became a partner in 1925.〔 Harry Marks was described as being "gifted with inventive genius". He was particularly interested in providing good ventilation and natural lighting and these are features of buildings designed by him. He devised and patented a number of architectural elements, including roof ventilators, a reversible casement window which provides optimum directional ventilation and a method of stucco wall construction using a hollow wall to give the appearance of a solid wall, but cheaper to construct than brickwork.〔 The Alexandra Building was completed in 1902 by Toowoomba builder James Renwick. Various sub-contractors worked on the building including Wheatcroft and Co. (painters), TS Burstow (fittings) and Keogh and Co. (suppliers of the dining tables and other furniture). Its construction reflected local confidence in the continued prosperity of Toowoomba and the surrounding district during a period of widespread drought. It spanned two allotments and had a prominent two-storeyed frontage to Ruthven Street - considered "uncommon, and particularly striking" at the time - with an upper floor verandah with cast-iron balustrade, over the street pavement, and a decorative three-gabled face-brick parapet with the words "Alexandra Hall" in relief on the middle gable. The building was named in honour of Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII of Britain and of Australia. Edward had succeeded to the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, in January 1901 and the coronation of Edward and Alexandra was conducted in August 1902 around the time that TK Lamb's new building was opened.〔 The ground floor was divided into two shops, each 100ft (30.5m) long by 30ft (9.1m) wide, with plate-glass front display windows. The ceilings were high, and additional natural lighting was provided from high-level windows in the front and rear elevations. The northern shop was occupied initially by GP Merry's Drapery Emporium. The southern shop was occupied by TK Lamb and Co.'s Cafe Alexandra, which had counters and fittings in oak-grained pine, including a timber screen which separated the shop at the front from a dining room, 63ft (19.2m) by 30ft, at the rear, capable of seating 180-200 persons. Kitchens, pantries, storehouses and out-buildings were located beyond the dining room.〔 The Alexandra Hall, which occupied the entire first floor, was accessed via a 7ft (2.1m) wide timber staircase from a separate entrance off Ruthven Street, located between the two shop fronts. It was a high space, 60ft (18.2m) wide by 100ft deep, lit by windows in the Ruthven street and rear elevations, and from six large lantern lights in the roof. At night the hall was lit by gaslights with "beautiful multi-coloured globes". Reputedly the hall was capable of seating 900 persons, and when first opened seats for 600 were provided. Facilities included cloakrooms, dressing-rooms and water closets.〔 Four staircases led from the hall to front and rear verandahs, 12ft (3.6m) and 8ft (2.4m) wide respectively. These were located 4ft (1.2m) below the level of the hall, so that the retail spaces below were lit from windows front and rear, between the floor levels of the hall and verandahs. Another staircase led directly to the Cafe Alexandra dining room below, which could function as a supper room during concerts or other entertainments.〔 According to The Queenslander of 20 December 1902 construction of the hall supplied a much-felt want in Toowoomba, demonstrated by the almost continuous use of the hall in the first few months of opening. Toowoomba had lacked a large public assembly hall, and the Alexandra Hall's Ruthven Street location, in the centre of Toowoomba, made it especially attractive as a venue. The Alexandra Hall post-dated Toowoomba's third Toowoomba City Hall, constructed in 1900 in Ruthven Street on the site of the former Toowoomba School of Arts (destroyed by fire in 1898), but the City Hall theatre, with a seating capacity of 789, had a raked floor and could not accommodate banquets or dances. The Alexandra Hall pre-dated Toowoomba's Austral Hall, a large structure erected in 1904 by the Austral Association on the site of the Old Toowoomba Gaol in Margaret Street. It also pre-dated the Empire Theatre in Neil Street, which opened in June 1911 with a seating capacity of 2,200.〔 The Cafe Alexandra was said to be a great success and the Alexandra Hall was popular for dances, concerts and banquets. According to the Darling Downs Gazette rarely a night passed that it was not occupied. The venture proved so successful that in 1905 TK Lamb & Co. erected additions to the rear of the building, comprising a pavilion 32ft (9.75m) by 26ft (7.9m) and promenade balcony. The pavilion was accessed via a flight of stairs from the Cafe Alexandra on the ground floor, and could be used as a supper-room, banquet hall, or meeting room. The ceiling was of pressed metal and the room was lit by reversible casements (recently patently by Harry Marks). The promenade balcony was located at the rear of the pavilion.〔 In 1913 Thomas Kelsall Lamb died, and the title to the property was transferred to trustees: Queensland Trustees Ltd and Lamb's two sons, Arthur Kelsall Lamb and Herbert William Lamb. In 1947 title was transferred to TK Lamb & Co. Pty Ltd (TK Lamb Estates Pty Ltd from 1949).〔 A number of long-term tenants occupied the building. JM Harris (draper) occupied the northern shop from 1906 until 1935. In 1938 Gold Radio Service and 4GR broadcasting moved into the building, where they remained until 197X. The upstairs hall appears to have been sub-divided and used for offices by the late 1930s, but the Cafe Alexandra continued to operate on the lower floor.〔 Sometime between 1937 and 1943 the front verandah was removed and replaced by a cantilevered street awning, in line with a municipal policy that verandahs and street awnings supported on posts be removed as a road safety measure. Below the parapet the front of the building was rendered and painted when the verandah was removed. About this time the lettering on the building appears to have changed from "Alexandra Hall" to the "Alexandra Building".〔 In 1973 title to the property was transferred from TK Lamb Estates Pty Ltd to the Master Builders Permanent Building and Bowkett Society. The Cafe Alexandra appears to have closed about this time.〔 When Brian Hodgen, grandson of well-known Toowoomba architect William Hodgen, purchased the building at auction in 1976 it housed Palmers Silk Centre, McKinstry and Somerville trading as Chas Sankey Fraser (optometrists), and Music Houses of Australia trading as Palings on the ground floor. The first floor was unoccupied. Brian Hodgen conducted his architectural practice, Hodgen & Hall, from the first floor space, later practicing with his son as Hodgen and Hodgen Architects.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alexandra Building」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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