Red Hill: Churches, Cinema and Industrial History

Red Hill’s history encompasses church buildings, entertainment and industry. If you’re looking for a hotel in Red Hill, these different chapters can provide a theme for your trip: from the history of two churches and the changing use of an entertainment venue to former businesses. Architectural details range from a church designed for up to 1,000 people to a tram shelter and a single surviving fig tree. This offers a way to view the area through different periods, rather than reducing it to a single era.

Church construction across two timelines

The original St. Brigid’s Catholic Church was built in 1882. In 1914, it was replaced by a new building designed to accommodate up to 1,000 people. St Barnabas Anglican Church was built in 1888; a parish hall was added in 1909. Together, these dates show two different building sequences: at St. Brigid’s, the church was replaced, while at St Barnabas, a hall was added later. If you’re interested in church architecture, these contrasting developments stand side by side: a new building with a stated capacity and a parish hall added some years after the church.

From the Picture Pops Theatre to the Skate Arena

Around 1920, the Red Hill Skate Arena opened as the Red Hill Picture Pops Theatre. The theatre operated until about 1964. After that, the building became the “sound lounge” Teen City, where Little Pattie, Col Joy and the BeeGees performed. In 1965, it was converted into the Red Hill Skate Arena and remained open until 2004. Afterward, most of the building was destroyed by arson. The central thread of this chapter is the change in use: the theatre, Teen City and the skate arena successively occupied the same building. Unlike the churches, the focus here is chiefly on these changes of use and the end of operations.

Industry and architecture

David Green founded a brass foundry in Red Hill in 1882. The Green family ran the business as the Windsor Road Brass Foundry until 1973. The founding year coincides with the construction of the original St. Brigid’s Catholic Church, placing church construction and industry side by side in the area’s history. Shops & Flats offers another architectural point of reference: this Mediterranean-style building block was built around 1940 and housed a boot and shoe manufacturing business in the 1940s. The area’s industrial history thus ranges from brass foundry work to the production of shoes and boots. The more recent building block can also be distinguished from the older buildings by its design.

Tree, shelter and wall

Landscaped Precinct 3 includes a single surviving fig tree from a planting in 1909. In the same precinct, the Brisbane Tramway Company built a tram shelter in 1925. These two details represent different kinds of historic features: a surviving trace of the planting and a structure with a named builder. The porphyry stone wall on Ithaca Creek adds another layer to this history. It was probably built in the 1910s. While the wall’s date remains approximate, the tram shelter is dated to 1925—two different chronological reference points from the early decades of the 20th century.

Terrace Shops in the surrounding area

In the area surrounding Red Hill are the Terrace Shops, a masonry terrace building constructed around 1895. It is considered a rare example of this building type in the area, and possibly even in Brisbane. Compared with Shops & Flats, built around 1940, it represents an older building period and a different form. The Terrace Shops add a building type to the area’s history whose rarity is notable in the surrounding area and may extend beyond it.

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