page_title: Finney Isles & Co Building
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Finney Isles & Co Building / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Francis Alexander Jackson Isles, Brisbane, 1902 Francis Isles was a partner in the Brisbane retail firm Finney Isles and Co. (Description supplied with photograph) Finney Isles was taken over by David Jones in 1955.
context_page_description: Finney Isles & Co Building is a heritage-listed department store at 196 Queen Street, Brisbane CBD, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Claude William Chambers and built from 1909 to 1910 by James Mason. It was also known as David Jones.
  In 1992 the building was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register; at that time, the building was occupied by David Jones Limited which had taken over Finney Isles & Co in the 1960s.
context_section_description: This department store complex was built in stages between 1909 and 1936 for the firm of Finney Isles & Co. The firm was established by Thomas Finney and James Isles in 1864 with a draper's store in Fortitude Valley. The business quickly expanded, occupying Queen Street premises in the 1870s, then the City Exchange building in Edward & Adelaide Streets from the mid 1880s in which it sold a wide range of clothing, furniture and household items. Finney Isles, like many retailing firms, had a manufacturing section making both clothing and furniture.
  New premises, which were called the "Big Block", were erected for the company in 1909-1910. Designed by C W Chambers with J Mason the contractor, the building comprised five floors on Queen Street and three floors on Adelaide Street. The use of reinforced concrete for structural purposes was one of the first occasions in Queensland. The Adelaide Street site was previously occupied by the Gaiety Theatre and part of its southern wall was incorporated in the new structure. The building featured innovative display windows on Queen Street, silky oak staircases, lifts decorated in latticed ironwork and silky oak, pneumatic tubes for exchanging cash, a roof-top water tower and a large generator providing electricity to the lights, lifts, pneumatic system and the 400 sewing machines in the workrooms.
  In 1921 the company acquired a two storeyed building adjoining the northern side of the Queen Street store and it was converted for use as the men's department. In 1929 this building was extended to four storeys and the facade remodelled to a similar style of the 1909 store.
  The complex was further extended in 1936 when a three storeyed building was erected on the southern side of the Adelaide Street store. Designed by the Bruce Partridge of Sydney architects Mackellar and Partridge and Atkinson and Conrad, the work was undertaken by Stuart Bros Ltd. The facade was rendered in cream coloured cement. It featured pilasters designed in a modern vertical style with Art Deco spandrel panels of terracotta.
  Additional floors and a screen were added to the 1929 Queen Street building after 1949 and the 1936 Adelaide Street building was extended to five storeys prior to 1962. An auditorium was constructed on the fifth floor which worked as a gallery space and venue for dances through the 1930s and war years. A self service cafeteria opened in 1951 within the store. Finney Isles & Co was taken over by David Jones in the 1960s.
caption: Francis Alexander Jackson Isles, 1902
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