Brighton Terrace

Brighton Terrace is a heritage-listed duplex at 30 Sussex Street, West End, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by John Beauchamp Nicholson and built from 1887 to 1890. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.HistoryBrighton Terrace, which consists of two sets of identical pairs of semi-detached houses, was apparently built for investment purposes for Emile Adrian Gaujard in 1889-90. Tenders for the construction of the four houses were called on 6 August 1887 by John B. Nicholson, a successful Brisbane architect who prospered in the boom conditions of the late 1880s. Gaujard was a wholesale and retail tobacconist and importer of Gaujard and Elson, which was located in Queen Street, Brisbane. The first two houses were completed in 1889 and were immediately let to A. Mirls, a commercial traveller and WH Robertson, a bank manager. Despite completion in 1890, the second pair of houses were not occupied until 1894. Each of the four houses was individually identified with its own name.At the time of Brighton Terrace's construction, South Brisbane as in other parts of city, was experiencing a boom period. Residential expansion for respectable middle-class families proliferated in South Brisbane, with the predominant housing type being the four roomed timber cottage with a corrugated iron roof. Terrace housing was not particularly popular as a housing style in early Brisbane, especially amongst the land authorities who were unhappy with the small allotments that resulted after subdivision of the multi-dwelling properties. The passing of the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act in 1885 abruptly brought an end to the early style of terrace housing in Brisbane. In response, developments, such as Brighton Terrace, were introduced as an alternative to terrace housing that retained some cost benefits in construction. The advantage of building Brighton Terrace as a pair of residences on two allotments was that each pair could be legally sold separately. Most houses in the vicinity of Brighton Terrace were privately owned residences owned by clerks, salesmen and accountants.