At the beginning of October there was a feast for heritage and architecture lovers. The Brisbane Open House weekend was held for the 6th time this year and it gets bigger every year with over 90 buildings participating this time. The concept of opening buildings to public started in London in 1992 “as a small, not-for-profit organisation to promote public awareness and appreciation of the capital’s [London] building design and architecture”. This year over 30 cities participated worldwide with Brisbane, Maryborough, Toowoomba and Gold Coast in Queensland.
The weekend of 10/11th October 2015 was a great opportunity to explore many buildings that we usually don’t have access to. With over 90 buildings participating we were offered suggested itineraries as there is never enough time to visit all of the places in 2 days. I focused on a list of the 28 Heritage Treasures and still have few locations left for next year. If you are interested in modern architecture were also Creative Studios, Transparent Labs, Behind the Scenes, Sustainability Stars or Residential Marvels lists.
My Saturday schedule was packed as I was also volunteering as a part of Brisbane Open House crew at the Museum of Brisbane. I had few hours in the morning to visit couple of places. I must admit, I didn’t read the guide properly and went to visit Old Government House on Saturday and sadly found out that it was open on Sunday only, well had to leave this building for another day. Next on my list was John Mills Himself building on Charlotte Street, this time I checked if it’s open before going there. When I got there, I was wondering around the building by myself and got on the top floor with big open space. “John Mills himself is the tallest of a group of heritage brick buildings in Charlotte Street. John Mills (a printer) built his office, printery workshop and warehouse on this site previously occupied by Markwell’s Cottage in 1919.”
Few blocks away is Brisbane General Post Office where I took part in a guided tour. Our guide described all stages of development from construction in 1872 through many changes in buildings to current operations, he also explained how Australia Post was adopting and rearranging buildings to keep with changing customers requirements. On a photo below you can see where the top level of one of the buildings was before.
On my way to Museum of Brisbane I stopped for a coffee in the Shingle Inn “Brisbane’s oldest and most loved cafe” as described on BOH’s website. In the Museum we had children’s activities – we were making pinhole viewers so we could achieve the camera obscura effect. There was lots of fun. I had an opportunity to participate in 2 guided tours as well – the Brisbane City Hall Heritage Tour and Clock Tower Tour.
On my way home after first busy day I was preparing in my head list of buildings to visit on Sunday :-) Which buildings did I visit on Sunday? I will tell you in my next blog post. See you there.