Plans revealed for one of Brisbane’s grandest old homes

The Prince of Wales once partied there and Brisbane’s elite have enjoyed its sweeping river views since 1865. Now, a hidden gem will be opened up to the public for the first time in almost 70 years.

One of Brisbane’s oldest and grandest remaining riverfront homesteads, Middenbury House, will soon be able to be enjoyed by the public for the first time since the 1950s.

The 1865 Toowong home will be restored to its former glory and a raised garden created so people can promenade around the building for the first time, development application documents reveal.

It will also be connected to a grove of heritage Moreton Bay fig trees fronting Coronation Drive.

Brisbane City Council agreed earlier this year to buy 13 per cent of the old ABC studios site, which includes Middenbury House, for a landing area for its proposed Toowong to West End green bridge, as well as public park.

And last week, Consolidated Properties Group (CPG) unveiled plans for three towers on the ABC land, but said it anticipated building only two with part of the site for the third tower instead being used for the bridge and park.

Toowong residence Middenbury has been entered in the Queensland Heritage Register.

CPG said the final use for Middenbury, which is heritage listed (as is its river views), had not been determined.

However a cafe or bar would be a logical re-use that would open it up to the public for the first time since the ABC bought it in the 1950s.

It said the entire ABC site would go from 14 per cent to 50 per cent vegetated, if resident gardens at its proposed unit towers were included.

“Providing genuine useful public space on the riverbank has been a key focus of the development application,’’ CPG Head of Residential, James McGinley, said.

“This is the first time in more than 150 years that the public will have access to the riverbank on this site and we are pleased to be working with the council to provide this as part of the development.

“We have engaged extensively with the local community and are pleased that they are supportive of our approach to convert a derelict site into something that has true public benefit with a bikeway, access to the historic Middenbury House, and extensive public parkland.’’

The house is in good condition but wooden railing and the iron verandah roof need repairs.

Mr McGinley said Middenbury, where the Prince of Wales (later to abdicate as King Edward VIII after marrying Wallace Simpson) partied in 1920, was in good condition overall.

There was no cracking and the structure was mainly solid brick, with only the wooden railings and the iron veranda roofing in poor condition.

“It’s OK inside. The fireplaces have been walled over but it has aged well and must be on good foundations.

“We have proposed a modest extension out the back on Coronation Drive, possibly for a function space or health and wellbeing centre.

“We’ve proposed a raised garden plaza 1-1.5m below the house so the public can walk right around it and feel connected to it — at the moment there is a 6m retaining wall.

“But it is heritage listed so alterations have to be minimal and have to go through a strict process.’’

Middenbury House in its heyday. It once hosted the Prince of Wales.

The development application comes a fortnight after it was revealed nearby riverfront homestead The Dell, which has been in the Sapsford family continuously since it was built in 1883, will be moved.

And in March it was revealed that a developer had applied to build a nine-level unit tower in front of heritage-listed American inter-war home St Briavels, adjacent to the ABC site, blocking its river views.

Toowong Residents Group spokeswoman Freya Robertson said it was “heartened that CPG are going to activate both the heritage listed Middenbury House and the prime river front location to public access, which has never been previously accessible in living memory’’.

“Consolidated Property Group have been welcoming and proactive in engaging with the local community into their design, demonstrating a best practice example to other major project property developers,’’ she said.

Former site of the ABC TV and radio studios, including Middenbury House.

“The design does not overdevelop the land and they have solved the jigsaw of balancing their apartment buildings with the bicycle path required by the Neighbourhood Plan, the Council’s intended location for the green bridge, preservation of heritage buildings and public access to the riverfront – all while sticking to the City Plan and Neighbourhood Plan to avoid the controversy by the prior owner’s excessive design.

“We encourage the Council to contribute its part investing in surrounding public infrastructure and remediations to support this major development from the developer fees it will receive, including improving the safety of pedestrians and cyclists encouraged to flow through the site and onto Archer St and Glen Rd from the green bridge and the Coronation Drive bikeway.’’

Local state Greens MP, Michael Berkman, said while he welcomed Council’s decision to buy part of the ABC site for park he would still be pushing for the entire site to be dedicated to a regional park.

He was also concerned that the plans did not appear to allow for public access to the entire stretch of riverfront.

He said the Toowong-Auchenflower Neighbourhood Plan Code required “public access to the entire Brisbane River frontage for a minimum width of 12m” at the site.

But the DA’s Code Compliance Statements showed that would not be satisfied and, in fact, the response simply skipped the relevant section, he said.

“Council’s plan to create a small park at the ABC site as part of the Toowong to West End green bridge is bitter sweet,’’ Mr Berkman said.

“It’s a win for our long-running campaign to use that land for public green space and a bridge, but a reminder of the missed opportunity for Council and the State Government to work together to buy back the whole site for a real city-making project.

Middenbury as it looked about a decade ago.

“Now we’re seeing what happens when you hand over precious riverfront land to a private developer - they’ll try to wring it for every drop of profit they can.

“I am concerned that the developer is trying to break Council’s rules by failing to set aside the whole river frontage for public access, as required in the Neighbourhood Plan, and instead proposing to build an apartment block right up to the riverbank, preventing public access to most of it.

“I find it totally unacceptable that the developer would try to flout the rules like this and I’ll be doing everything I can to hold them to account.

“They will be making enormous profits from this project and locals deserve a significant part of this land to be preserved for genuinely accessible public green space.

How the Toowong to West End bridge could look. The Toowong landing point at the ABC site (lower right) will become a park.

“Even the heritage-listed Middenbury House will be turned into a retail venue for private profit, when it could have been gifted to the public as a community venue for local performances, meetings and events.

“Even worse, our broken planning laws mean the developer is trying to push all of this through as ‘code assessable’, which would mean the community has no real consultation or appeal rights despite significant public interest.’’

For more details view the development application on Council’s online portal developmenti and search for application A005881543