Story Bridge Hotel

The hotel was designed in the ornate Victorian Filigree style by Richard Gailey, one of Brisbane’s most prolific architects. After training as an architect in Donegal, Ireland, Gailey immigrated to Australia in 1864 and arrived in Brisbane in 1864. He set up his own architectural practice the following year and continued working until his death in 1924. He designed many impressive commercial buildings, specialising in hotels. Other Brisbane hotels designed by Gailey include the Regatta Hotel at Toowong (1886) and the Empire Hotel in Fortitude Valley (1887-89).

The Story Bridge Hotel (as it is now known) was not the first hotel to be established at Kangaroo Point. Other hotels such as the Bush Inn and the Commercial Inn predate the hotel.1 However, the establishment of this hotel at this locality and the subsequent construction of a new hotel in 1886 mark the consolidation of industry and commerce and the area as a village.

Strategically located on a main thoroughfare with ferry terminals to the city either end of the peninsula, close to industry, commerce, the city, and working class housing, the hotel position was ideal.2

With the hotel, at this time (1880s), being the only licensed premises located at this end of Kangaroo Point success was assured and the construction of the new hotel in 1886 reflects the confidence the owners had in the commercial future of the hotel and the area. There can be little doubt the hotel, at times, would have been the centre of the small community's focus. 

Pat Reynolds operated the first hotel on the site  in the 1860s.1 James Darragh took over the hotel in the mid 1860s and eventually moved it as a business to the corner of Main and Wilson Streets in 1878. Apparently the hotel was first located on the “other side of the street.”3 Over the subsequent years the proprietorship alternated between James and Henry Darragh. The family in addition to being involved in the local hotel, which not only gave them a high profile in the community and an ability to increase their wealth, purchased a number of properties in the area.4 The present Darragh St in Kangaroo Point is named after the Darragh family. Shortly after the construction of the hotel in 1886 Peter McGuinness took over the hotel, although James Darragh again resumed control in 1896 and then operated by another member of the Darragh family, Miss A.L. Darragh in 1900.15

By 1924 the hotel was nearly 40 years old, and renovation was overdue. The hotel was altered substantially on the outside to give it a more “modern” appearance. Some prominent visual items such as the verandahs were removed. These exterior alterations  were retained until the hotel under went restoration by owner Barry Deery in the late 1980s. 67

The construction of the Jubilee Bridge (later to be called the Story Bridge) in the mid 1930s and the influx of workmen to the area, ensured clientele compensation for the removal of houses in the area for the hotel. The hotel was quick to capitalise on the changing circumstance of the area, changing its name from the Kangaroo Point Hotel to the Story Bridge Hotel in c.1941/42.89 The construction of the bridge has also instigated other changes such as a sign above the hotel at eye level designed to attract travellers who utilise the Story Bridge.

During the threat of invasion in World War II roofless bomb shelters were constructed under the bridge near the rear of the hotel in 1941-42.10 In late 1970 Deery Hotels Pty Ltd applied to the Brisbane City Council to alter these shelters.11  At present they are operated as a storage area and bottle shop. The hotel also underwent renovation and change through the 1950s and 1960s. The then proprietor of the hotel I & E Humphries put an addition to the hotel in 1954, and a cold room in the following year. Other smaller additions, such as a car port, occurred in 1960s.12

The hotel has been a meeting place fort the Kangaroo Point community for well over a century. 

The building is crowned with a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron. Two brick chimneys extend from the roof as does a large illuminated sign visible from the bridge behind. 

French windows with fanlights open onto the verandahs. The building curves around the street corner with more closely spaced verandah posts. The main entry point to the building on Main Street is defined by a curved iron pediment. The underside of the footpath awnings are lined with a cast iron frieze. 

A single storey wing on Main Street added at a later date has been remodelled in a sympathetic style with an awning over the street and parapet design of a similar era.

This impressive building and the corner store opposite form a commercial node characterised by the two solid, 2-3 storey masonry buildings addressing each street corner with post supported awnings over the footpaths, upper level verandahs and pitched roofs.

1. Merle Norris. (Comp) Brisbane Hotels and Publications Index: 1842 - 1900. Brisbane History Group Sources  No.6, 1993. p.31. & Queensland Post Office Directory.1876 -1888

2. Brisbane Hotels and Publications Index: 1842 - 1900. p.31

3. Advertisement for the Kangaroo Point Hotel, undated. Located in BBC heritage file on Kangaroo Point Hotel

4. Brisbane Hotels and Publications Index: 1842 - 1900. p.31

5. Photocopy of newspaper article in the National Trust files on Kangaroo Point. It is likely to be an article from the Telegraph from July 1929 or July 1939. Queensland Post Office Directories. 1868 - 1890

6. Certificates of Title.

7. Brisbane Hotels and Publications Index: 1842 - 1900. p.31

8. Queensland Post Office Directories. 1905 - 1910

9. Brisbane City Council Electronic records

10. Courier Mail, 19 October, 1983

11. Post Office Directories. p.97 (1941) & p.93 (1942)

12. Douglas, K. A Portrait of Brisbane. (Bathurst: Robert Brown, 1988). p.10

13. "Air Raid Shelters: Story Bridge - South Approach.” Plan, Brisbane City Council Dept of Works and Building Branch. Copy held Air Raid Shelters, Heritage Unit Files

14. Brisbane City Council Building Cards. Held on Microfilm No: M043 - 006 - 051

15. Ibid