Charlotte Café

Story

Charlotte House is a heritage-listed warehouse at 139–145 Charlotte Street, Brisbane CBD, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by John Joseph Lough and built from 1888 to 1889 by James Baker. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.HistoryThis four storeyed warehouse was erected in 1888-89. Built for Wallace Warren & Co, merchants, importers, bonded warehousemen and shipping agents, Charlotte House was designed by John Joseph Lough. In the early 1880s, Lough had been in partnership with Benjamin Backhouse in Sydney and his unusual choice of Greek and Egyptian motifs for the building reflects similar work by Backhouse in Sydney on a warehouse for Dalton Brothers in the late 1870s.The construction of this warehouse in Charlotte Street reflected the emergence of the immediate area as a warehousing precinct. Formerly known as Frog's Hollow, by the late 1880s, the area was dominated by warehouses and also industrial buildings.Between 1889 and 1894, Wallace Warren & Co operated their business from the building but following the depression of the early 1890s, they were declared bankrupt in 1894. The new owners, the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, leased the building to various tenants including Crescent Packing Co which processed and packaged coffee and spice bags there, box manufacturers Joyce Brothers, and Cecil Edgar Babbidge, a printer and stereotyper. Between 1911 and 1919 the prominent Sydney-based tea merchants, Inglis Ltd, distributors of the Billy Tea brand, occupied part of the building. Their distinctive sign covered the entire length of the southern wall.