Bleeding Heart is situated in the lovely building you see above- the old School of Arts at 166 Ann Street. It's heritage-listed and one of the oldest buildings in Brisbane.This building was erected in 1865-66. Known as the Servants Home, it provided accommodation for single adult females who had migrated to Queensland and were awaiting employment as domestic servants. Designed by H Edwin Bridges, the building comprised a ground floor and two upper galleries. In 1873 the property was purchased by the trustees of the North Brisbane School of Arts for £1000 ($2000). The building was let to tenants for several years before it was converted to a school of arts. In 1877 contractor Blair Cunningham added verandahs and other modifications designed by Richard Gailey for a cost of £1377 ($2754).
The new School of Arts building was opened on 17 May 1878. The School of Arts provided a library for members, conducted public lectures, and organised classes in a wide variety of subjects. To meet the needs for technical education classes, a hall was added to the rear in 1884. This space was used for the Brisbane Technical College which operated under the auspices of the School of Arts until 1902 when the government took responsibility for technical education.
The lending library was a major activity of the School of Arts. In 1908, to make room for an increase in the number of books, an extension, designed by Messrs Atkinson and McLay, was built beside the hall. You can see what it looked like at this time in the pictures below- pretty similar to what it looks like now, actually!
Membership of the School of Arts steadily declined during the 1920s and 1930s. To increase revenue, shops were built in front of the building in 1937-
In 1955 a brick upper storey was added to the shops with connections to the School of Arts building. The verandahs were removed at this time. In 1966 trusteeship of the property was transferred to the Brisbane City Council which continued to operate a public library at the site until 1981. In 1983 the front offices and shops were demolished and restoration work undertaken so that the structure looks much like it did at the end of the 1800's. After this restoration, the building was re-opened on 13 February, 1985. Currently, the entire bottom level houses Bleeding Heart, with the two upper levels being home to-
Human www.human.org.au
Queensland Conservation Council www.qccqld.org.au
and Greenpeace www.greenpeace.org.au
